766 RAPID-TRANSTT SUBWAYS IN MP:TR0P0LITAN CITIES, 



them Avould not have been built. Both London and Ghisgow have 

 recognized these facts, and have not opposed the companies when 

 they have appealed to Parliament for power to use the ground below 

 the streets. 



FRANCHISE IN BUDAPEST. 



The nearest approach to British conditions is to be found in Buda- 

 pest. There the city has invested nothing; the subway has been 

 built, equipped, and operated by a private company. But the city 

 has reserved the j^rivilege of taking over the line in 1940, when the 

 concessions for the surface lines expire, provided announcement is 

 made of its intention two years previous. Otherwise the franchise 

 runs ninety years from 1896, or until 1986. The maximum fare is 

 tixed at 10 kreutzers (5 cents) during the first fifteen years, after 

 which the cit}' authorities may require a reduction. The city will 

 receive from the gross revenues an amount to be calculated on the fol- 

 loAving scale: 



Per cent. 

 During tlio first ten years following a period of twenty years, 191G-1926___ 1 

 During the second ten years following a period of twenty years, 1926-193G_ 2 

 During the third ten years following a period of twenty years, 1936-194G__ 3 

 During the fourth ten years following a period of twenty years, 1946-1956- 4 

 From this time to the end of the concession, 1956-1986 5 



During the first twenty-five years the city can not grant any other 

 concession for the establishment of a system of transportation of any 

 kind between the center of the city and the park. And for the first 

 fifteen years the comj^any is exempt from taxation. The city, of 

 course, possesses in addition the usual police powers, and the conces- 

 sion contains many provisions specifying how the subway was to be 

 built and how it is to be operated. 



TEimS OF THE PARIS CONCESSION. 



The position of the Paris subway is the result of manj^ compro- 

 mises between the municipal council and the central government 

 whose a]:)proval was necessary for the execution of the project. The 

 central authorities insisted that the subAva}- be connected with the 

 railroads in order that trains from the country might be run right 

 through to the centei- of the city and a suburban traffic thus de- 

 veloped. The munici])ality feared that the railroad companies 

 would get control of the subway and that a large ^iortion of the jjopu- 

 lation would be induced to leave the city and live in the suburbs, 

 thereby decreasing the city's revenue from octroi. A compromise 

 was finally effected, and in the early part of 1S9S the act was passed, 

 which fixed the gauge of the road, over which there had been so much 

 dispute, at the standard Avidth. But the city, in order to prevent 

 the railroads from ever sending their cars over the subway, has built 



