case of a power failure steam engines could tow the carriages. The third line, also standard gauge, was opened on September 10, 1889 and ran from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to Andrássy út. Even though not a tram line per se, the first underground line in Continental Europe, the Millennium Underground Railway must also be noted. It was built using a cut-and-cover method between 1894 and 1896 and was first named FJFVV (Ferenc József Földalatti Villamos Vasút ()) after emperor Franz Joseph. It used electric cars from the very beginning. In the first years, tram had no numbers but coloured circular signals instead, for example, a simple red, green, blue or black disk; a red disk with a vertical white stripe or a cross; a white disk with a green 8-pointed green star, etc. This, of course, quickly became very cumbersome so around 1900, when there were already 30 lines, each line got a number – BVV, which was renamed to BVVV (Budapesti Villamos Városi Vasút ()) got the even numbers; odd numbers were assigned to a rival transport company, BKVT (Budapesti Közúti Vaspálya Társaság ()). In the last year of the First World War, there were already 1,072 tram trains running in Budapest or on the outskirts of the capital. This fleet carried more than 382 million passengers in Budapest in 1918. The dynamically growing network brought new companies: two of them served Újpest, the northern part of Pest, one Pestszentlőrinc, which then was a separate town, and one the southern part of Buda and the then-separate village Budafok. These companies were joined together in 1923 by the name BSZKRT (Budapest Székesfővárosi Közlekedési Rt. ()). It was during 1939-1944 that the most tram lines (66) existed in the city. After World War II The siege of Budapest left the city with a crippled infrastructure: many houses were destroyed, as well as the bridges bombed, electric cables torn. It was of course of utmost importance to restore the transport network, however, many trams were destroyed either in the siege or in a depot fire that occurred in 1947. This might have been the cause that decisionmakers suggested that trolleybus lines should replace trams in the city centre. Along with cost considerations it is important to note that trolleybuses might be better suited for the downtown area than trams: they turn more easily and produce significantly less noise. While some