Train ticket purchase in Hungary – online or analog?

Introducing online ticket sales two years ago has proven to be one of the best moves of MÁV (Hungarian States Railways) recently. Customers seem to love the new purchasing method: sales from ticket machines increased by 22 percent, while online purchases doubled this year, according to VG.hu.

From 1 January to 31 March 2018, 34.6 million tickets were sold at MÁV-START, which means a 1.3 percent increase compared to the same period last year. However, the online interface and ticket machines seem to be the real trump cards of MÁV. Furthermore, MÁV’s subsidiary dealing with passenger trains introduced additional discounts on tickets purchased through any of their self-service systems after 10 December 2017.

This led to a 5 percent discount on tickets bought from ticket machines and 10 percent on tickets printed at home or used through an electronic device like a smartphone.

The data speak for themselves, as the results of the newly introduced discounts were clearly visible in a couple of months. About 1.5 purchases were carried out through ticket machines in the first quarter of 2018, almost a quarter more than in the same period last year. The increase on the field of online purchases was even more significant by 76 percent.