Traveling on local public transport should become easier: the Munich Transport Association (MVV) is introducing a new electronic ticket at the end of this year. This should primarily benefit occasional drivers, who will then no longer have to laboriously deal with the various tariff zones of the MVV.
It works like this: When boarding, the passenger checks in with their smartphone and checks out again when getting out. The cell phone automatically recognizes any changes in between, and after the journey the fare for a single journey in the corresponding zone is automatically calculated. This eliminates the risk of someone buying the wrong ticket and involuntarily becoming a fare evader. If you forget to check out, your smartphone will do this after a short while.
If you make several trips a day, you don’t pay more than the price for a day ticket. The Munich Transport Association (MVV) calls this a “cost airbag”. Billing is then done digitally, for example via credit card.
MVV tested the system for three years under the name “Swipe and Ride”. Around 12,000 customers took part. Unlike the test version, however, you are no longer billed based on the distance traveled, but rather based on the zones traveled. The system is integrated into the MVV app; downloading an additional app is not necessary.
“With this simple and flexible option for buying tickets digitally, using public transport becomes even more attractive and makes it even easier for people to leave their cars at home and travel with MVV in the future,” said MVV boss Bernd Rosenbusch.
The check-in and check-out system applies throughout the entire MVV area, which since last December has also included the city and district of Rosenheim, the southern district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen and the district of Miesbach. The districts of Weilheim-Schongau and Landsberg am Lech will join on January 1, 2025, and other candidate countries expected to join in 2026 are the districts of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Mühldorf as well as the city and district of Landshut.