A record number of municipalities have joined the European Mobility Week campaign

“The Government is committed to support, for the reasons of environmental protection, health, traffic management and wellbeing as well, the spreading of sustainable public transportation modes in the widest possible range” – said Mr. László Tasó, state secretary responsible for transport policy, on the opening event of the European Mobility Week and Car-Free Day in Budapest on 16th September 2015, which was held at the intermodal centre being built at the Etele Square.

The aim of the campaign held between 16th and 22nd September is to encourage municipalities to introduce sustainable transport measures and people to use and combine the available means of transport.

Mr. László Tasó outlined: “The European Mobility Week and Car-Free Day is not an anti-car campaign: our aim is only to draw peoples’ attention to the fact that the most comfortable looking transport solution is not necessarily the best one. With a little care and awareness we can plan our trips in a way to save time and money, to generate less load on the environment and to do something for our own health as well.”

In his speech, Mr. András Csépke, Chief Executive Officer of the passenger railway company MÁV-START Zrt. said: “The reform of technical operations and the spreading of a passenger-friendly attitude are in progress at the railway company, which is also reflected in our developments and results: our railcar fleet is growing continuously while we have improved our service level in the region of North-East Hungary with used carriages purchased from abroad. More and more P+R and B+R car parks await out passengers along our renovated railway lines and our trains are of course equipped to take bikes as well.”

Mr. Ákos Kameniczky, Traffic Director of the bus company Volánbusz Zrt. said: “VOLÁNBUSZ Zrt. considers the European Mobility Week and the Car-Free Day event series to be of particular importance as we must do something for the future of our children and not only think about it. Our company is devoted to the protection of our environment while our endeavours are driven by the aim to offer a safe, civilised, reliable and predictable travel option with our ever more modern fleet, offering a real alternative to private transport. We hope that this event series would make many car drivers decide to try the services of VOLÁNBUSZ Zrt. and that the experience so gained would make them choose public transport more and more often in the future.”

Mr. Kálmán Dabóczi, Chief Executive Officer of the metropolitan public transport company BKK Budapesti Közlekedési Központ Zrt. emphasised in relation to the Car-Free Weekend of the capital that: “We offer equal opportunities for all of our clients. Budapesti Közlekedési Központ is therefore much more than a transport management company, it has the role of mobility management as well. The scope of our tasks reaches far beyond ordering and managing public transport: we create harmony and interoperability between the different modes of transport while we also harmonise the developments carried out in the capital.”

Mr. Péter Csiba, President and Chief Executive Officer of the electricity company MVM Magyar Villamos Művek Zrt. said in relation to the MVM Energy Race to be organised during the European Mobility Week that: “As main sponsor, we are happy to side with the European Mobility Week as we fully agree with the goals and messages of the event series. With our event, the 5th MVM Energy Race where vehicles with non-conventional propulsion compete, we also seek to take part in the promotion of environmental protection and of sustainability.”

As national coordinator, the Ministry of National Development conducts the awareness-raising campaign drawing attention to the sustainable and environmentally friendly urban transportation for the eleventh time this year. This time, the topics of the European event series are intermodality and multimodality. Its slogan, “ChooseChangeCombine!”, encourages people to reconsider available transport options and to choose the one best fitting their trip and to combine transport modes.

A record number of Hungarian municipalities, 178 in total so far, have registered this year to participate in the campaign, undertaking to organise events related to sustainable mobility.

The closing event of the European Mobility Week event series is the Car-Free Day. In the capital, the Car-free Weekend will be held on the Andrássy Road on 19th and 20th September, where a section will be open to pedestrian traffic. 155 municipalities from all over the country have undertaken in the campaign to organise a Car-free Day by closing one or more areas to car traffic.

Information about the programmes of the European Mobility Week and Car-free Day is available at www.emh.kormany.hu

Detailed program (in Hungarian): http://www.bkk.hu/mobilitasihet/programok.php