BKK, owned by the capital city, has drastically raised the prices of line tickets since September, while the quality of the service is deteriorating and public safety is declining. The flights are overrun with beggars, drug addicts and aggressive beggars, and the seats are regularly soiled with human urine and excrement.
It seems that the Budapest Transport Center (BKK) is unable to find an effective solution to keep aggressive barkers away from public transport vehicles. Lines 4-6 were checked in a special operation in July, but fines were imposed on only one person.
Experience shows that since spring, the problem has only increased, the barkers harassing passengers board the trams in groups, and their number has also increased. Zsolt Wintermantel, the head of the Fidesz-KDNP faction in the capital, said that the owner, the capital municipality, has the duty to maintain order and ensure safe and peaceful transport for passengers.
According to eyewitnesses, there are days when aggressive barkers encroach on lines 4-6 en masse, there have also been cases where three people got on the tram at the same time at the Blaha Lujza tér stop.
In March, it was noticed that the beggars appeared again on the Körüt tram lines, accordion players, men and women with children and alone beggars board the entire line 4-6.
During an average, twenty-minute journey, passengers are forced to meet up to three or four beggars. The BKK knows about the problem, they announced back in March that they deeply sympathize with those in need, so they try to handle such situations humanely but efficiently.
– All employees of BKK strive to ensure that our passengers travel comfortably and feel safe on our vehicles. At the same time, there are social phenomena, such as extreme poverty, the consequences of which people face in public spaces and sometimes in vehicles. While we deeply sympathize with the needy and those in difficult situations, we also have to keep in mind the needs of our passengers, so we try to handle such situations humanely but efficiently, wrote the BKK.
The company, with the involvement of ticket inspectors, and in cooperation with the staff of the BRFK and the Metropolitan Police Department, regularly conduct checks on vehicles and stops. In addition, the BKK announced: in order to create safe and calm travel conditions, it is the duty of ticket inspectors to exclude from travel those who do not meet the travel conditions.
"At the same time, begging is very difficult to control, because if there is no confession, then this act will not come to light. In addition, just like the police and public area inspectors, our inspectors cannot be present on every flight to take action in the mentioned cases," underlined the transport organizing company in Budapest. They added: the presence of passengers who do not meet the travel conditions can be reported primarily to the body and property guards wearing the uniform of the BKK Security Service, as well as to the ticket inspectors on duty on the vehicle.
If none of them is present on the vehicle, the passengers can (if justified) speak to the driver, who will notify the dispatch center. They notify the BKK's mobile security unit, and the police in the event of a serious disturbance.
"The BKK recently updated its protocol for such cases, the aim of which is to ensure that the security guards on duty arrive at the scene as soon as the driver signals. We significantly increased the number of security personnel assigned to the aforementioned line group, and also made their command more efficient: on some days, the entire staff is on duty on tram lines 4 and 6. We intend to continue this practice, the results are constantly analyzed," BKK listed, adding that in July of this year, it placed tram lines 4 and 6 under increased control.
During the campaign, several groups of ticket inspectors were present on the line for several days. On the morning and afternoon of July 20, the ticket inspectors and BRFK patrols carried out priority public safety checks. In the course of this, the police checked a total of 14 people at the stops and on the flights - who looked suspicious or showed some form of anti-community behavior - and imposed a fine on one person. No crime was detected during the campaign.
According to Zsolt Wintermantel, the leader of the Fidesz-KDNP faction in the capital, it is regrettable that organized begging by people with a difficult fate, in many cases not even from Budapest, has appeared again on the streets of Budapest.
- Public transport is a service purchased by the traveling public, so the company dealing with public transport in the capital city and the owner, the capital city municipality, have the duty to maintain order and ensure safe, peaceful transport for the customers, i.e. the passengers - said the representative of the ruling party.
It should be mentioned: the capital city-owned BKK has drastically raised the prices of line tickets since September, while the quality of the service is deteriorating and public safety is declining. The flights are overrun with beggars, drug addicts and aggressive beggars, and the seats are regularly soiled with human urine and excrement.
