Delayed arrival for new Budapest metro trains

New trains that have been purchased for Budapest's Metro 2 and Metro 4 are expected to be six months late in arriving, leading to disputes and demands for compensation, reports index.hu.

According to the portal, Budapest public transit operator BKV Rt insists the delay is the fault of French transport equipment company Alstom, which produces the trains, and is demanding compensation totaling €13 million.

For its part, Alstom is blaming the BKV for the holdup, and wants a similar amount of compensation from its customer.

According to contracts signed in 2006, the first train for the Metro 2 line should have arrived in May 2008, and in November for the Metro 4 line. The contract between BKV and Alstom includes 37 trains of which 22 would operate on Metro line 2 and 15 on Metro 4.

Meanwhile, in September global engineering giant Siemens is scheduled to begin installing control system in the vehicles, and can claim Ft 50 million per month for any delays impacting its work.

Another wrinkle involves the ongoing delays involved in the construction of the new Metro 4 line, which may mean that the "warranties" of the trains may have expired even before they are put into service.

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