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HATC SAMPLE EDITION:
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15th August, 2025
Third bus fire in 2 days sparks political row
A bus caught fire on Alkotás út in downtown Buda yesterday, the third such incident in just two days.
The blaze broke out in the engine compartment at a time when the bus was stopped with no passengers on board.
The driver extinguished the blaze before firefighters arrived, who then cooled the area.
Another BKV bus burned in the same district earlier on Thursday.
A fire that broke out on a bus in downtown Pest on Wednesday was so intense it scorched a nearby building.
Mayor Gergely Karácsony has requested an immediate report from the BKV and ordered safety measures.
Transport expert and city councillor Dávid Vitézy said the root cause is the government’s refusal to allow Budapest to buy new buses.
The two Mercedes Citaro vehicles that caught fire yesterday were bought second-hand in 2012 in Frankfurt after they had been in service for 11 years, and were originally intended to be in service for only four to five more years.
Vitézy argued that material fatigue is now causing dangerous failures.
He recalled that in 2021, the city council approved a Ft 30 billion loan to buy 380 new buses, with tenders completed and deliveries planned for 2023.
The loan, from OTP, K&H and Gránit banks, required government approval, but the application was rejected after nine months, without explanation.
As a result, he said, the BKV has had to lease ageing buses at high cost.
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Sources regularly consulted, with abbreviations used in text: Népszabadság (N); Magyar Hírlap (MH); Világgazdaság (VG); Napi Gazdaság (NG); Magyar Nemzet (MN); Népszava (Nsz); Kossuth Rádió news (KR); nightly TV news (TV).
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