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Construction of metro line 4 between Budapest Kelenföld and Keleti railway stations

This 12.7-kilometre, 16-station metro line is a textbook example of misused public money in oversized infrastructure planning and flawed public procurement. The need to provide municipal co-financing has already caused financial problems for the city, preventing implementation of more urgent surface public transport projects. One feasibility study proves that original return indicators were not realistic. Industry experts argue that in the new traffic impact and financial assessments, the project was promoted as economically viable only by manipulating data. As revealed in May 2009, 11 of 50 project contracts were signed without an open tender, and while the Commission later reduced co-financing for 11 contracts to EUR 170 million, it approved the project anyway in September 2009.