New innovation of Budapest’s transport company making our life easier

BKK Centre for Budapest Transport is testing a new solution to make it easier and more convenient for customers using digital tickets to board. The company will allow passengers to validate products purchased with BudapestGO after boarding trams 4 and 6 with stickers placed in the passenger compartment.

BudapestGO has become a popular travel application for the capital’s residents, as the app effectively helps to buy tickets and passes quickly, provides automatic pass renewal, and supports route planning, even for cyclists. It’s no wonder that in four months, more than one million people have already used BudapestGO. Thanks to the app, more and more people are buying digital tickets and passes, which need to be validated by scanning the code before boarding the vehicles.

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BKK’s goal is to make the use of tickets even easier and more convenient, taking into account customer feedback. Therefore, as of 6 July, the company will make it possible, as a test, to validate digitally purchased occasional tickets on lines 4 and 6 by scanning the stickers displayed in the vehicle’s passenger compartment, just like paper tickets need to be validated on board.

The way to use digital tickets and passes is different

An important difference is that the use of digital single tickets, daily travelcards and passes is different. Only digital single tickets and time-based tickets need to be validated upon boarding by scanning the exterior code sticker by the door of buses, trams, trolleybuses, cogwheel and suburban railway trains. Travelcards and passes are valid from the starting time indicated at the time of purchase, the validation sticker needs to be scanned only on bus lines with front-door boarding and at the metro station entrances if control staff, the passenger coordinators, are on duty.

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Why do I need to scan the code sticker?

Scanning the code sticker displays an animated image on the user’s phone, which changes periodically. This allows the passenger coordinator or driver to check the validity of the ticket or pass. Since trams do not have a front-door boarding system or access control staff at the entrance, only the digital single tickets and time-based tickets are validated by scanning the code sticker.

The validation stickers will also be displayed in the passenger compartments of trams 4 and 6

Validation stickers will be available in the passenger compartment of trams serving the Grand Boulevard on the right-hand side of the doors and by the driver’s cabin, making it possible to validate digital mobile tickets conveniently on board. Single tickets must be validated immediately after boarding, whether paper or digital.

As the Siemens Combino-type trams operating on lines 4 and 6 are also diverted to tram line 1 at weekends and on non-school days, BKK customers will be able to see the validation stickers there as well. During the test period, mobile ticket validation will also be available on tram line 1.

In parallel, BKK is also looking into the possibility of introducing NFC technology. This would allow a digital ticket or pass to be scanned with a single touch, similar to a bankcard payment.

How to use digital tickets

The use of tickets and passes purchased in BudapestGO is different. The scanning of the code sticker validates single tickets, which provides important information for ticket inspectors. In the same way as for paper tickets, where the ticket validator prints a time stamp on the ticket. Travelcards and passes do not need to be validated, they are valid from the time of purchase. When using travelcards and passes, the scanning of the code sticker is necessary to avoid fraud and fare evasion.

Validation of digital single tickets and time-based tickets

Digital single tickets – and airport shuttle bus and time-based tickets – must be validated for all boardings without exception, and time-based tickets must be validated for each transfer. The latter is necessary because a journey started at the last time before validity expires can still be completed on the vehicle. In the case of a ticket inspection, it is also possible to digitally check when and on which line the customer is travelling. Ticket validation can be done by scanning the code sticker before the journey starts. After scanning the code, an animated image and the words “Validated” in green appear on the phone display and in the list of fare products, respectively.

Passenger coordinators at the metro entrances and the drivers of buses with front-door boarding must be shown the animated image. Although the code sticker is also required to be scanned on the tram, it does not need to be shown as there are no access control staff.

A video demonstrating the use of digital single tickets and time-based tickets can be found here.

Digital daily travelcards and passes

Digital travelcards and passes do not need to be validated every time you travel, you only need to scan the sticker if you are travelling on the metro network or on a bus with front-door boarding. In such cases, the animated image displayed on the phone must be shown to the passenger coordinator at the metro entrance or to the driver of the bus.

Passengers with a digital pass do not need to scan the code on buses that do not have front-door boarding or on trams. Only BKK ticket inspectors will check the validity of the pass on these lines. In this case, you must show the inspector the code appearing after clicking on your pass or travelcard.

The BudapestGO app can be downloaded by anyone from the App Store and Google Play, and more information on how to use it is available at bkk.hu/budapestgo.

Source: bkk.hu