Romanian capital Bucharest switches from paper tickets to plastic cards for public transport

The Bucharest Public Transport Company (RATB), that runs the buses, trams and trolleys in Romanian capital city Bucharest has stopped printing paper tickets and has put on sale only cards that ca be used either as an electronic wallet or as a subscription.

Travelers can get a plastic card called Activ, which can be issued for RON 3.6 and can fuel it with maximum RON 50 in journeys. A journey currently costs RON 1.3, but RATB plans to hike the price to RON 1.8. This card can also hold monthly subscriptions, for a full price of RON 50 if one wants to travel on all buses, trams and trolley lines in Bucharest.

Another option is to get a carton card called Multiplu, which looks similarly to the metro cards. This card can cover either an entire day of traveling through the city by public transport, or it can be activate with up to 10 journeys. This one in not rechargable and you would have to pay RON 1.6 for the carton card only, plus the cost of each journey. This change is part of RATB's modernization plan. New journey validation machines have been installed in Bucharest's buses, trams and trolleys and they have been active in parallel with the old validation system, which involved the paper tickets. Moreover, lender BCR has recently launched a debit card which can be used also as a public transport tool, allowing passengers to pay for the journeys on their card with funds from their BCR bank account, while also using the card regularly at ATMs or POS. Users will get a credit of RON 10 when the card is issued and 5 percent bonus from all the transactions with the public transport application on the card, according to BCR. editor@romania-insider.com