News in the purchase of travel tickets will speed up travel in the east of Slovakia

From 1 August, passengers on regional buses in the Prešov and Košice regions will no longer have to buy tickets at every boarding. Prepaid and transfer tickets will be added.

Travel in eastern Slovakia is undergoing a fundamental change. Thanks to the successful cooperation between the Košice and Prešov counties, a zonal tariff will be introduced in regional bus transport from 1 August 2024. The change will bring innovations in the types of tickets and their purchase.

“The most significant benefit of the zone tariff for passengers will be the new possibility to purchase time subscription tickets, which are now familiar from urban transport as monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annual tickets. They can buy them in the customer centre at the station or in the e-shop, either for the zones they travel regularly or for the whole territory of eastern Slovakia. With season tickets, passengers will no longer have to buy a ticket each time they board. They will just tell the driver the destination and, if applicable, the type of discount and attach the transport card to the reader without printing a paper ticket. This system will significantly speed up regional transport. The transport cards that are currently valid, including the ISIC card, remain valid and are usable by all carriers in eastern Slovakia,” said Rastislav Trnka, chairman of the Košice Self-Governing Region.

Monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and annual prepaid tickets allow unlimited travel in selected zones or throughout Eastern Slovakia during their validity. Passengers purchase zone subscription tickets by selecting the zones they regularly pass through on the basis of the tariff scheme and purchasing tickets specifically for them at the carrier’s customer service centre or in the UBIAN mobile application. The driver can only extend the validity of the ticket for the same period of time. Only one-day tickets can be purchased from the driver. Prepaid tickets are exclusively carried on a transport card with the passenger’s name and photo.

“A new benefit we offer is a transfer ticket for two connections. If someone travels, for example, from Bardejov to Košice with a change in Prešov and buys tickets separately for each connection in cash, they will pay a total of EUR 6.50. With a transfer ticket via a transport card, however, the journey will cost only 4 euros. On the first connection, the passenger must tell the driver the stop at which he is changing buses and the final destination. On the second connection in Prešov, he/she only has to inform the driver of the exit stop and verify the fare by attaching the transport card. With this measure, those passengers who are forced to change buses will no longer have a price disadvantage,” said Milan Majerský, President of the Prešov Self-Governing Region.

As the carrier of the prepaid tickets will be exclusively the transport card, the regions recommend passengers to get it as soon as possible if they do not have it yet.

For passengers who will continue to buy single-use non-transferable tickets (which is the only type of ticket available today), nothing will change in terms of how to purchase the ticket. The passenger boards the vehicle, tells the driver the destination and the driver issues the ticket. The passenger therefore does not need to be familiar with the fare zones when purchasing single tickets (both transferable and non-transferable). The on-board computer automatically determines the fare according to the fare zones.

TS: KSK, PSK, IDS Východ
Foto: PSK, KSK