From Nyugati to Keleti Train Station

From Budapest Nyugati Railway station to Keleti Train Station

You can get to Keleti train station easily from Nyugati Train Station, either by taking the underground metros, or on the surface with trams and buses. In either case, you will need tickets which are sold at Nyugati subway (by the Nyugati metro station) in ticket kiosks.

Nyugati Train Station Budapest

Nyugati Train Station Budapest (photo by Jillian York)

Metros

From Nyugati train and metro station, you can

1, take the M3 (also called blue) metro line to Deak square where all the metro lines meet. Your route will include the following stops: Nyugati – Arany Janos – Deak)

2, change to the M2 (also called red) metro line to Keleti train and metro station (2 in 1 station). Your route will include the following stops: Deak – Astoria – Blaha – Keleti train station.

The journey on the metro from Nyugati to Keleti takes about 15-25 minutes. You need to buy metro tickets in a kiosk or at a ticket machine at the station. You need to buy only 1 metro ticket as it will be good for the combined metro trip – max use is 1 hour (it more or less means that you can change at Deak, but you cannot go up from the tube to the surface to look around, and take your time on Deak ter). If unsure, ask an official public transport employee, like the ticket cashier.

You will have to validate your tickets first before using the escalators, which take you down to the metro vehicles (sometimes there are escalators down to the ticket office level, like on Deak ter). Ticket inspectors will most probably be standing at the escalators to check your ticket (not to validate as you are supposed to have validated your ticket in the punch machine in front of the escalators). Ticket inspectors can be impolite and often lack basic English skills.

Trams & Buses

Alternatively, you can get to Keleti from Nyugati – on the surface – by taking a tram and then changing to a bus:

1, first take tram number 4 or 6 to Blaha Lujza square (about 10-15 min). Your route will include the following tram stops: Nyugati – Oktogon – Kiraly utca – Wesselenyi utca – Blaha Lujza ter

2, on Blaha square, change to a bus towards Keleti 7, 173 or 178 (if you are standing next to the fountain, you are on the right side of the road). If you are on a normal bus, your route will include Blaha – Huszar utca – Keleti, on an express bus it is only Blaha – Keleti, so be alert, your trip will be short (unless peak time traffic jam gets you stuck for 15 minues)

While in the metro-metro trip in the first option you only need 1 metro ticket, taking the tram and then the bus means that you will need a so called transfer ticket (combining 2 trips), which is about 490 HUF (1.8 euros). The transfer ticket (atszallo jegy in Hungarian) is good for the combined trip for max 90 min.

Trams and buses do not have conductors (drivers just drive), so you will need to validate your tickets in one of the punch machines on the tram. You will need to validate the transfer ticket once on the first vehicle, and another time on the second vehicle, altogether twice (or if you don’t have a transfer ticket, 2 single tickets separately).