A further development in Budapest public transport authority BKV’s dire financial situation is that the transport authority is considering selling off its remaining properties, daily Népszabadság reports. What further complicates the matter, is that the majority of BKV’s attractive property portfolio has already been sold off, and selling the remaining portions will not solve the company’s financial crisis.
Among the properties mentioned for sale would be the funicular next to Clark Ádám tér, which generates Ft 1 million daily (€4000), the libegő chairlift which brings in an annual Ft 40 million (€160,000), the company’s headquarters in Akácfa utca in District VII, and its river fleet in the Danube. City leaders are expected to decide on which properties the BKV can sell shortly, although given the speed of bureaucracy, a final result should not be expected soon.
Further slowing the chain of events is that the city leaders would have to then offer a tender for the properties, take into consideration possible protests from unions and preexisting lease agreements. Additional plans consider selling garages or building more floors onto current buildings and leasing them out.
Considering that some of the BKV routes are already outsourced (which primarily were the services running during the April 18th strike), the company is looking at the possibility of leasing out suburban train (HÉV) operations, which would be leased with the condition that the rolling stock be renovated.
Dávid Vitézy of the Urban and Suburban Transport Union (Városi és Elővárosi Közlekedési Egyesület, VEKE) announced that he views this latest move as unwise, especially in light of how the BKV has already sold everything that they could get a good asking price for. He added that selling the BKV’s headquarters and then renting office space for premium prices is counterintuitive, suggesting that the best option were if the BKV had an office where they could lease out several floors to other occupants.
Vitézy continued that he fears that not only would the funicular and the libegő chairlift be sold, but the real estate around it as well, and that in the case of garages, the company should only move forward if it would not impact passengers. As for BKV’s proposed changes, he added it would appear that VEKE has succeeded in removing them from the table.
Due to a lack of progress in talks, the multi-day strike set to begin on May 27th remains unchanged.