Speaking at a press conference, Tarlós said he would refrain from giving his opinion in the matter until both the external and internal investigations of the problems are concluded. The mayor expressed, at the same time, his displeasure at the “German system administrator staying sneakily silent” on the issue.

BKK is not a producer or financier of the system in question; it merely placed an order for a service “for which it has not yet paid a single forint”, Tarlós said.

He added that, despite opposition calls, he has no plans to dismiss BKK head Kálmán Dabóczi until the matter is resolved in its entirety.

On another subject, Tarlós said Budapest transport company BKV upholds its demand for the manufacturer of trains for the third metro line, Russian Metrowagonmash, to pay a fine of 2 billion forints (EUR 6.5m) or higher for delivering reconditioned trains in an unacceptable condition.

He said the upgrade of the third metro line “is not going badly at all”, noting that after being pulled from service for inspections, six trains have already re-entered service while a seventh train arrived on Wednesday and will be back in service within the next few days.

The contract is for 222 trains to be reconditioned at a cost of almost 220 million euros.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

MTI photo: Mohai Balázs