Monday, August 5
BVG to accept card payments on Berlin buses from September 1
For anyone moving to Berlin, certain aspects of city life seem to swim against the tide. Whether you like them or not, smoking indoors, closing times that never arrive and the inability to pay by card come over time to appear less like decisions made by a given place than simple facts, inescapable features of the city. But time comes for all of us, and things are beginning to change when it comes to card payment – if only on the bus.
From September 1 the BVG has announced that its bus drivers will no longer carry cash but instead accept card payments from anyone who requires a ticket. Those without a Deutschlandticket, Berlin-Abo or other season ticket can also purchase a ticket beforehand on a machine or via the BVG app. According to the company, each bus sells on average only three tickets per day and 99 percent of passengers board with a valid ticket.
The decision to go cashless on Berlin buses comes a full decade after the same step was taken in London, but it still drew some criticism in the House of Representatives, particularly from the AfD who states that they saw the move as “a further step towards the complete abolition of cash”.
