Groningen railway station
The main point of the 'EU Public Transport’ Digital Digest
We're surrounded by information, opportunities, fares, and travel passes. Thousands! And as soon as we start looking for travel, the search engines automatically show up trade monopolists. There's no time to search for specific tickets, routes, or discounts. No time to analyze what's on offer.
Computers and smartphones are the most popular information carriers today. They're constantly improving. The quality of the information they process and offer must also improve.
A huge number of different apps are being created. The volume of information is only growing. It's easier to buy what immediately appears in a search engine. Finding something different, better, and more affordable, takes time. It takes even more time if you don't know what to look for.
Our Digest simplifies things. We inform you what to look for, where to look, and how much it costs.
We are confident that this is one of the best options for organizing your info space for using public transport.
Public transport applications, travel and city passes are presented on the Internet like that.
Our Digital Digest systematizes information on public transport in EU countries.
Payment options for public transport in the European Union
In the EU countries, the implementation of new technologies occurs at different speeds. Therefore, in several countries, the system of paper tickets, which are sold in kiosks and shops, continues to operate. Such tickets must be validated when boarding the transport. Sometimes the validator punches a pattern of the given transport on the ticket, sometimes it indicates the start time of the trip. In such cases, the fare is determined by the time of the trip.
In the EU countries that have implemented a contactless scanning system for smart cards, it is possible to pay for travel with any contactless bank card, a travel smart card, onto which either money or passes are loaded, as well as mobile smartphones with applications, tickets, passes of transport companies or international payment systems. Single tickets are also valid, which are usually purchased from machines and scanned when boarding the transport.
Please note that with a contactless bank card, you don't actually need to buy a ticket or travel pass at all. Simply scan it when boarding and at the end of your journey. It's important not to mix them up. Scan the same card at the beginning and end of your journey! Otherwise, your journey may be surprisingly expensive. Payment by bank card will be based on the ticket price, excluding any discounts.
Passes and discounts are always loaded only onto travel smart cards of a particular country. But what to do if, in your opinion, a trip using a bank card turned out to be expensive. You have the opportunity to clarify the cost of travel. In each EU country, there is a company that processes such payments, and accepts questions and objections. You need to contact this company and indicate your route. And if you accurately scanned your card when boarding and exiting the transport, then the exact time of these actions will be recorded in the history of your bank card. This way you will prove your route and check the correctness of the payment. If everything is so that the overpaid amount is returned.
European Passenger Kit
Some countries have introduced and actively use SMS tickets to pay for travel on public transport. It can be purchased by owners of mobile phone numbers of the same country. They send an SMS to the operator about the need to purchase a specific ticket, pay for it, and immediately receive a ticket on their mobile a valid ticket with a code. The code is scanned in transport when boarding, and that's it.
And about cash Cash payments for travel on public transport in EU countries are disappearing. The exceptions are buses and commuter trains, and not in all countries. In a bus, a driver will sell a ticket, in a commuter train - a controller. If cash payment is allowed, then the rules stipulate that the cost of travel will be slightly more expensive. Coins and banknotes of 5 Euro and 10 Euro, no more, are accepted for payment.
Buses
A bus is a European all-terrain vehicle. It can take you to any city or village in any EU country. As you can see, roads come in different forms: straight and not so straight, inclined and horizontal, with high-quality asphalt pavement and without it. In addition, the bus is the most numerous form of public transport in the EU. For example, in Romania alone, more than 6,000 buses depart daily!
Bus. Waterbus!
Trams
Sometimes a tram ticket can be better than a tourist pass.
For example, only a tram can take you along the entire coast of Belgium. You can admire the sea views along the entire route. Look at the map!
Now, for fun, search for this route on Google. Found it?
Look at the website of the city tram company. The tram runs along this route several times an hour every day.
And again about bicycles!
As already mentioned on the first page of our site, there are many different conditions for transporting bicycles in public transport in different EU countries. Now about what kind of bicycle is allowed to be transported and how. Of course, the digest will tell you more precisely in which country what conditions regarding this issue. But in short, ordinary bicycles can be parked inside transport only in strictly designated places, in carriages that have a bicycle sign on the outside. In some countries, you can transport only folded transformable bicycles in public transport, placing them in certain places. There are countries in which you can transport both types of bicycles. Only ordinary ones - with a bicycle ticket, and folding ones - free of charge. In a word, there are many options, and financially everything is very serious if you have to use public transport often.
AIR Subscriptions
We do not pay attention to air passenger transport. But we decided to mention the company Wizzair.com, since it began to offer real subscriptions to frequent flyers. We suggest you find out about this yourself on the company's website.
Information gift
We are publishing a very interesting map for you!
We decided to share with you a map of routes to ski resorts. Trains will quickly take you to the ski slopes. And most importantly: no restrictions on luggage! Take everything you need. You can walk, have breakfast, lunch and dinner on the train. Train stations are usually located in city centers. And if you calculate the time spent on travel to and from airports, flight time, payment for excess baggage, then traveling by train may seem very attractive. As a rule, a lot of buses run from train stations that take you directly to the ski resort, hotel, even to the ski lift.
