Modern elevator at Budapest railway station remains unused

Budapest is unfortunately a city where the disabled, elderly and families with small children often find it difficult to use public transportation due to the lack of elevators or escalators leading from one level to another. An elevator built eight years ago connecting the platforms of Nyugati pályaudvar (Western Railway Station) with the underpass below would be of great service to them, but it has never functioned. News portal Index tried to discover when it will, but so far, they have yet to receive answers.

In January, the portal wrote an article about the elevator, which had been installed in 1999 by the builders of the West End mall. At the time the original article was written, MÁV (Hungarian State Railways) Spokesperson Imre Kavalecz promised that it would be running before the first half of this year ended, as all that was required was an operational permit.

By mid-August, the elevator had still not transported passengers. Index contacted MÁV by phone but they asked Index to send their questions via e-mail. After Index did, they received a call and were promised that answers would be forthcoming the following day. Index is still waiting for those answers.

Back in January, the portal learned that MÁV did not want to "spoil" its passengers with an elevator at the Nyugati station, because then they would "demand" them at other locations as well. This was the reasoning behind the decision for why the company did not seek to gain an operational permit.

The elevator cost tens of millions in forints and was manufactured by the world's leading elevator manufacturer OTIS. Similar elevators operate in the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, and were also used in the World Trade Center towers.

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