BUDAPEST, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- Holiday lighting will be used sparingly in the capital of Hungary this Christmas season in order to save energy.
The city's iconic Christmas tram will also run without the tens of thousands of twinkling LED lights that have created mesmerizing sights since 2009.
By switching off its Christmas lights, the city expects to reduce its energy bills by close to 30 million Hungarian forints (76,400 U.S. dollars).
The streetcar known locally as the "Advent tram" reappeared on the city's streets on Friday, but this time with a more modest interior decoration designed to represent the Christmas spirit, the municipal public transport company BKV said in a statement.
This year, the tram has a new, and important mission: it offers passengers the opportunity to help those most in need with a donation. Inside the tram, a quick response (QR) code enables travelers to donate money to a kindergarten for the children of homeless people.
The tram will run until the end of December and will appear at various points in Budapest.
The city of Budapest is also struggling with rising energy prices. A new energy subsidy regulation that entered into force in August obliges companies and institutions to pay market prices for electricity and gas, which have increased twofold and sevenfold, respectively, since last winter.
Only households consuming under the national average are entitled to benefit from the price cap on energy bills.
For the coming holiday season, the Budapest City Council has also suspended all eviction procedures and has launched a municipal utility price support scheme in which people with low income will be eligible for up to 48,000 forints.
In recent weeks, the City Council has replaced all its light bulbs with energy-efficient ones and has lowered the temperature in its offices to 18 degrees Celsius.
Budapest has also joined the European Union's "Cities Energy Saving Sprint" initiative, which enables the participating cities to exchange know-how and practices on how to save energy during the winter. (1 Hungarian forint = 0.0025 U.S dollar)
