Bus fare and tickets

[md0]

So, random curiosity, but how much does it cost to travel between the main cities of your countries (so intercity buses, not local networks, though it wouldn't hurt to mention it either), and can we see the tickets, maybe?

Here's mine from few days ago, travelling from the capital city of the country back to my district. It was one-way so it cost 4EUR (for ~85km). Fares for other destinations here. Tickets are plain paper. People who live in countries with widespread train use, don't be too smug about it



I guess it wouldn't hurt if we talked about our experiences with public transportation in general, so feel free to talk about it.

[MillMaths]

I rarely get out of London these days so I haven’t got a clue how much it costs to travel between London and other UK cities. Within London itself people who rely on buses get around using an Oystercard.

Small print at the bottom reads “Issued subject to conditions – see over”.

London bus fares for 2013 are £1.40 with Oystercard and £2.40 when paying by cash.

[Sol Invictus]

People travel around their country AFAIK it is different to every city, check with http://www.autoosta.lv/main.php?lng=eng (timtable shows prices,it suggests destinations), I checked whichever town was the furthest away from Riga, got 10 euros

Also bus travel to other Baltic capitals costs around 20 euros

And within Riga single ticket costs 1 euro (it gets cheaper if you buy many http://www.rigassatiksme.lv/en/tickets- ... f-tickets/)

[Garethw87]

To travel from city to city you'd pay between £15-60. It depends if there are any deals on. The average price I pay to travel from Manchester to London is about £45. This is with National Express the main coach service.

We also have Megabus. If you book in advance you can travel Manchester to London or between any cities for like £5 or less! They go to a few European countries too, France, Belgium, Netherlands and again if you book in advance and on a certain day (Wednesdays I believe) then you can get from UK to France for example for £20!

Local travel... I have to use 3 different bus companies to get to work and back. So I have to buy a ticket that is accepted on all of the companies. This costs me £72 per month!!

[JackFrost]

Ok, in the Greater Montreal region, we have several public companies running the buses and metro separately from each other and they cover one or a few municipalities. The commuter trains are run by a separate public company. For example, Montreal has its own (STM; Société de transports de Montréal) whereas just across the river from me, it's the RTL territory (Réseau de transports de Longueuil). The price depends on how many zones will you cross, but that's only good for the trains, STM, and monthly TRAM passes because it's not possible to buy a bus ticket to travel within the RTL while being in the territory of the STM. So, I live in zone one and the farthest I can go would be to St-Jérôme ($9.75 one-way; 65 km).

Ok, the map of the zones and regional public companies' territory (TRAM fare list included).
STM prices (it covers the whole Island of Montreal).
Commuter train fares. (I don't take the train ever since I have almost no reason to go to the suburbs).

Because it's Canada, it takes at least a couple hours to travel between many major metro areas. Round-trip, it costs $48 student-65+/$90 regular to go to Quebec City (250 km). $29/$34 to go to Trois-Rivières (140 km). It's much cheaper if you plan a month ahead and you'll be doing a very long-distance trip (hey, you could drive for a day and you might be still in the same province), you could go to Winnipeg for $218 round-trip (2,370 km) or $262 to Vancouver (4,665 km). Check out VIA Rail if you want to know the train fares and Greyhound if you want to know the bus fares (it pretty much runs in most of Canada save Quebec and the Atlantic provinces).

Oh yeah, metro/bus tickets.


OPUS card to store a dozen passes (quicker than paper) and a paper ticket.


The back of a paper ticket. OPUS card has nothing on the back anyways.


Travelling to the US is cheaper than going to my province's capital. $124 for round-trip to NYC (600 km). It's the same bullshit as flying within the country. -.-

[Car]

Until this year, intercity buses weren't even allowed within Germany, only to cities abroad (IIRC, the law was introduced ages ago to protect the then-public train system). By now there are several bus lines, aimed at people who want a cheaper alternative to trains or cars. I'm not sure how much it costs, though.

[kevin]

Long distance bus lines are basically unknown in Germany. Until recently, they even only existed for traveling to other countries, within Germany the railways had a legal monopoly. I believe this has changed with the start of this year, but I still couldn't name a single bus company that offers long distance rides, let alone know their prices. I'm simply used to taking the train (which can easily cost more than 100 EUR for travelling to the other end of Germany).

For local travel I pay about 160 EUR per month (for a distance of about 40 km), and even though it's mainly trains there again, it does involve a few minutes on a bus at last, so I suppose this is what allows me to post here.

[Varislintu]

Oh dear, a really complicated answer would be required to give a full picture, but I'll try to simplify it.

Intercity busride costs depend on distance and nowadays also whether you manage to get a cheap ticket budget airline style. Turku - Helsinki (150km) is therfore 3-20 euros.

In the Helsinki region we have an electronic ticket system, so there are no paper tickets anymore, just ordinary printed receipts. Most people get the electronic card and use that to travel. You can either load money onto it or buy a period that gets loaded into it.

Prices within Helsinki are: 2.80 from bus driver, 2.20 from an automat/cellphone, 1.90 with electronic card, 0.95 for a student with the electronic card. The ticket, once bought, is valid 60 minutes and can be used for that time in metros, trams, buses and the Suomenlinna ferry.

[md0]

Within London itself people who rely on buses get around using an Oystercard.

I was told that's among the things that are really cool about London

Also bus travel to other Baltic capitals costs around 20 euros

And that's what's cool about living in mainland Europe

The average price I pay to travel from Manchester to London is about £45. This is with National Express the main coach service.

It seems to be that the railroad is cheaper then. I think I only paid 20 pounds to go from Manchester back to London by train, and that was only 2 weeks advance booking. Coach prices were indeed ~45 pounds then.

We also have Megabus. If you book in advance you can travel Manchester to London or between any cities for like £5 or less! They go to a few European countries too, France, Belgium, Netherlands and again if you book in advance and on a certain day (Wednesdays I believe) then you can get from UK to France for example for £20!

But it sucks that if something urgent comes up, buying tickets on the spot is unbearably expensive.
When I missed my first train in England (because of stupid airline delays), the price for a new ticket was nearly 100EUR (80-something pounds, I don't remember well).

Because it's Canada, it takes at least a couple hours to travel between many major metro areas. Round-trip, it costs $48 student-65+/$90 regular to go to Quebec City (250 km). $29/$34 to go to Trois-Rivières (140 km). It's much cheaper if you plan a month ahead and you'll be doing a very long-distance trip (hey, you could drive for a day and you might be still in the same province), you could go to Winnipeg for $218 round-trip (2,370 km) or $262 to Vancouver (4,665 km). Check out VIA Rail if you want to know the train fares and Greyhound if you want to know the bus fares (it pretty much runs in most of Canada save Quebec and the Atlantic provinces).

I am sorry Jack Sounds quite expensive.

Until this year, intercity buses weren't even allowed within Germany, only to cities abroad (IIRC, the law was introduced ages ago to protect the then-public train system).

Long distance bus lines are basically unknown in Germany. Until recently, they even only existed for traveling to other countries, within Germany the railways had a legal monopoly.

Stupid protectionism...

Transportation in German is generally expensive, guys?

[MillMaths]

Within London itself people who rely on buses get around using an Oystercard.

I was told that's among the things that are really cool about London

And they’re necessary as well. Commuters without one have to pay much higher fares when travelling on London’s buses and local trains (Underground, DLR, etc ).

An Oystercard currently costs £5 (it was £3 when I bought mine in 2005). You top up on credit, and use the card to pay your fares by touching it on a yellow optical reader.

[Car]

Transportation in German is generally expensive, guys?

Very much so, by now you have people flying within the country for private reasons because it's cheaper. E.g. a one-way train ticket from my home town (near Bielefeld) to Hamburg costs €55 without any reductions. When I lived in Hamburg, I paid €60 per month for two zones. At least I never left them and I could use all buses, trams, suburban trains and ferries which are part of the system.

One good thing about train tickets is that they're not only valid for the train you booked, but you can use any train for the same route on the same or following day, so if you miss your train, you can just catch the next one without needing a new ticket. Reservations are lost, though (they cost extra and often, trains are so full that you might not get a seat without one, unless you're there early or smart).

[Sol Invictus]

Within London itself people who rely on buses get around using an Oystercard.

I was told that's among the things that are really cool about London

Why? Isn't that just an electronic card that you need to swipe to pay for the ride?

[JackFrost]

Why? Isn't that just an electronic card that you need to swipe to pay for the ride?

No swiping because it doesn't have a magnetic strip. You just hold it over or on the reader. We can keep it in our wallet since a layer of fabric or leather often won't stop the reader from sensing your card.

[md0]

Well it's something that we don't have in Cyprus and that makes things much easier, so people who come back from London do mention it a lot.

[Hoogstwaarschijnlijk]

Why? Isn't that just an electronic card that you need to swipe to pay for the ride?

No swiping because it doesn't have a magnetic strip. You just hold it over or on the reader. We can keep it in our wallet since a layer of fabric or leather often won't stop the reader from sensing your card.

In the Netherlands something like this is used now too. Both for the bus and the train (and also the metro and the tram if a city has them). People have complained a lot about them, it's been seen as a way to make things more expensive (at first it was cheaper when you bought a retour ticket, with the 'ov-chipkaart' you can't do that naymore), it's seen as unsafe, you have to do more than when you'd just buy a ticket (check in, check out, put money on the card...) and things can easily go wrong. Like, my wife just went within the city by bus, like 20 minutes or so, and the card charged her for 4 euro's something. While the way back suddenly was 1,30 or so, so things must have gone wrong again there, because 4 euro's for a relatively short bus ride

As for how expensive things are, it all depends on the distance... You can go from one city to another by bus, for example from Eindhoven to Helmond and that's not that expensive, but usually people will go by train when that's possible and when the cities are further away from each other. Lots of people have a card where they have 40% discount quite often, I have such one too. I think normally you'd pay 15 euro's or so to go from Utrecht to Eindhoven (50 min.), but now I pay nearly 8.

I've looked it up, apparently it's 95 km Utrecht-Eindhoven, so it seems that in Cyprus it's cheaper, but I can go four times an hour, so that's quite often and a train is more comfortable, so you pay for that too, I guess. I don't like busses. When I need to go to my mother's house by bus, then first I need to go to Eindhoven and then usually I just have missed the bus and the next one suddenly won't go and the one after that is too late, so then it has taken me more than an hour and 3 euro's or so to have a drive that is by car maybe ten minutes...

[Varislintu]

In the Netherlands something like this is used now too. Both for the bus and the train (and also the metro and the tram if a city has them). People have complained a lot about them, it's been seen as a way to make things more expensive (at first it was cheaper when you bought a retour ticket, with the 'ov-chipkaart' you can't do that naymore), it's seen as unsafe, you have to do more than when you'd just buy a ticket (check in, check out, put money on the card...) and things can easily go wrong. Like, my wife just went within the city by bus, like 20 minutes or so, and the card charged her for 4 euro's something. While the way back suddenly was 1,30 or so, so things must have gone wrong again there, because 4 euro's for a relatively short bus ride

Oh, you pay by distance even locally? That must be annoying.

Here the chip card system works quite fine -- but then our single tickets are for 60 minutes with the possibility to freely change between transport types, which is a great system in my opinion and makes the chip card system simple to understand and possible to trust.

[Johanna]

Here the chip card system works quite fine -- but then our single tickets are for 60 minutes with the possibility to freely change between transport types, which is a great system in my opinion and makes the chip card system simple to understand and possible to trust.

Only 60 minutes?

In my county it's 90 minutes within one zone and 180 if you go through several, and as far as I know that's standard in Sweden. Same thing if you buy a ticket, it's just that that's much more expensive than using your chip card.

Those cards are only valid on local and regional buses, trams, trains and ferries though, but I guess it's the same thing in Finland.

[Hoogstwaarschijnlijk]

In the Netherlands something like this is used now too. Both for the bus and the train (and also the metro and the tram if a city has them). People have complained a lot about them, it's been seen as a way to make things more expensive (at first it was cheaper when you bought a retour ticket, with the 'ov-chipkaart' you can't do that naymore), it's seen as unsafe, you have to do more than when you'd just buy a ticket (check in, check out, put money on the card...) and things can easily go wrong. Like, my wife just went within the city by bus, like 20 minutes or so, and the card charged her for 4 euro's something. While the way back suddenly was 1,30 or so, so things must have gone wrong again there, because 4 euro's for a relatively short bus ride

Oh, you pay by distance even locally? That must be annoying.

Here the chip card system works quite fine -- but then our single tickets are for 60 minutes with the possibility to freely change between transport types, which is a great system in my opinion and makes the chip card system simple to understand and possible to trust.

Why would that be annoying? I think that's just the one thing that's better in the new system. In the old one, you had this 'zone system', when you went by bus it really mattered where you went out, because it could suddenly be much more expensive otherwise. This is fairer, I guess. It's never for 60 minutes or so, that seems annoying when you get delayed! Or when the train gets delayed...

[edit] The 'freely change between transport types' sounds great though, I wish we would have had that here! No need to check in check out check in check out check in check out and each time pay the 'start prize', 'opstaptarief' again...

[Varislintu]

Only 60 minutes?

In my county it's 90 minutes within one zone and 180 if you go through several, and as far as I know that's standard in Sweden. Same thing if you buy a ticket, it's just that that's much more expensive than using your chip card.

Yes, it's only 60 minutes internally within Helsinki. In the 'burbs, i.e. the municipalities that surround Helsinki, tickets are valid a bit longer, 80 minutes internally. It's also 80 minutes if you buy a two-zone ticket, and 100 minutes for three-zone tickets.

More minutes would of course be nice, but this is what we get from the all powerful traffic companies , and I think they're measured so that they cover most people's needs, but still not quite enough for getting to and from an errand, so that people will also have to buy a ticket back to the original departure point often enough, so they can make a profit.

On a tangent, in Tallinn, Estonia's capital, I heard they made local mass transit free. But not for tourists.

[Varislintu]

Why would that be annoying? I think that's just the one thing that's better in the new system. In the old one, you had this 'zone system', when you went by bus it really mattered where you went out, because it could suddenly be much more expensive otherwise. This is fairer, I guess.

I guess it depends on how big the zones are. I just feel like it would be annoying that I couldn't anticipate the cost of the fare very well. And I'd have to remember to "check out" of the vehicle with the card. And it could get expensive pretty fast if you have to ride a complicated route because that's where the bus goes.

Btw, how does that work? Is the cost determined by the distance the bus actually travels or is it the bird's way distance from departure point to destination? (I.e. does it cost more if the bus follows a route that snakes back and forth?)