Public transport in Debrecen, Hungary, is provided by ''DKV'' (short for ''

Debrecen Debrecen ( ; ; ; ) is Hungary's cities of Hungary, second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain Regions of Hungary, region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the large ...

i Közlekedési Vállalat'' – Public Transport Company of Debrecen; complete name is DKV Zrt.) Before mid-2009 two companies provided

public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

in the city:

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

s and

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

es were operated by DKV while

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

es were operated by Hajdú Volán, which provides transport in the rest of Hajdú-Bihar county. DKV took over bus transport on 1 July after winning a tender. DKV has 140 buses (40 of which are

articulated bus An articulated bus, also referred to as a slinky bus, bendy bus, tandem bus, vestibule bus, stretch bus, or an accordion bus, is an articulated vehicle, typically a motor bus or trolleybus, used in public transportation. It is usually a ...

es). All buses are Low-floor and airconditioned.

DKV

The company was founded in 1883 under the name ''Debrecen Local Tramway Company''. They started providing public transport on 2 October 1884 with horse-drawn and steam-powered trams. The first electric tram started operating in 1911. From 1906 the town of

Hajdúsámson Hajdúsámson is a town in Hajdú-Bihar county, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary. Geography It covers an area of and has a population of 12,961 people (2015). Twin towns – sister cities Hajdúsámson is twinned with ...

and later, the town of

Nyírbátor Nyírbátor () is a town in Szabolcs–Szatmár–Bereg County, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary. The town contains 15th and 16th century ecclesiastic and secular architectural heritage. Geography It covers an area of and ...

were connected to Debrecen by municipal railway, also operated by the same company. By the 1940s there were already ten tram lines. On 2 June 1944 the city was bombed, and the tramway system was seriously damaged. It was repaired by 1947, and seven tram lines served the city until the 1970s, which brought a decrease in the popularity of trams. Tramways were demolished all over the country, the role of trams was taken over by buses. Today Debrecen is one of only four Hungarian cities to have a tram line, but even here only one line survived. The importance of DKV decreased, and the company lost its leading role in the public transport of Debrecen. Trolleybuses started operating in 1985, taking over several lines which used to be tram-operated until the 1970s. The company became state property on 15 July 1950. Today it is owned by the city.

Trams and trolleybuses

Between 1970 and 1984 21 ''FVV'' trams entered service. The same tram type was used in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Miskolc Miskolc ( , ; ; Czech language, Czech and ; ; ; ) is a city in northeastern Hungary, known for its heavy industry. With a population of 161,265 as of 1 January 2014, Miskolc is the List of cities and towns in Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, ...

and

Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also #Etymology, other alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat ...

, trams for the latter two cities were built by DKV. The company still owns eight of them, but they can rarely be seen on the streets. The typical blue trams (KCSV-6) of Debrecen were built between 1993-1997. There are only 11 of them in the whole world, all of them in Debrecen. The company also owns an old nostalgia tram. The trolleybuses

ZiU-9 ZiU-9, or ZIU-9 (Cyrillic: ЗиУ-9) is a Soviet Union, Soviet (and later Russian) trolleybus. Other names for the ZiU-9 are ZiU-682 and HTI-682 (Cyrillic: ЗиУ-682 and ХТИ-682). The ZiU acronym stands for "Zavod imeni Uritskogo", which m ...

were manufactured in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, 26 of them entered service since 1985. The four

articulated An articulated vehicle is a vehicle which has a permanent or semi-permanent coupling in its construction. This coupling works as a large pivot joint, allowing it to bend and turn more sharply. There are many kinds, from heavy equipment to buse ...

trolleybuses have been in use since 1991. New Solaris Trollino buses are being bought since April 2005, in place of the old Soviet buses. In October 2011 the Spanish firm

CAF CAF or caf may refer to: Armed forces *Canadian Armed Forces (Canadian Forces), the Canadian Air Force, Army, and Navy *Canadian Air Force, now the Royal Canadian Air Force *Republic of China Air Force, the air force of the Republic of China (Tai ...

will be in charge of supply of 18 32-metre

Urbos The CAF Urbos is a family of trams, streetcars, and light rail vehicles built by CAF. The Spanish manufacturer CAF previously made locomotives, passenger cars, regional, and underground trains. In 1993, CAF started building trams for Metrovalencia ...

low-floor trams delivered from 2014, for the second tram line which was opened in late February 2014.

Buses

Since 2009, bus services have also been operated by DKV (expect the three "CORA" bus lines, which is still operated by Hajdú Volán). Currently, there are over 50 routes (only about 30, if routes with A/Y/I/E or 1 signed bus lines are not counted) and 3 bus types:Volvo Alfa Civis 12,18,

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz Group, established in 2019) is based in Stuttgart, ...

Conecto G and ITK Reform 500LE (there only 1 from the last type).

Map of tram network

References

External links

DKV official site
(Hungarian/English)
Hajdú Volán official site
(Hungarian)

* ttp://public-transport.net/bim/Debrecen.htm Tram in Debrecen(English, German) {{Hu-transport Public transport companies in Hungary Transport in Debrecen Public transport in Hungary