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Postbus bans cash on the first lines and refers to machines on the bus. These work cashless.
A Postbus customer occasionally travels through the canton of Graubünden and is annoyed to find that there are individual routes on which it is no longer possible to buy a ticket with cash from the driver. “It should still be possible for children or people with disabilities to pay with cash.”
Goal: Everything cashless from 2035
The fact is: It is the declared goal of the public transport industry to make ticket sales exclusively digital by 2035. However, this is a particularly sensitive industry, explains André Bähler of the Consumer Protection Foundation: “People depend on public transport and on most routes people cannot switch to an alternative that accepts cash.” In this respect, it is essential that people without digital payment options can also use public transport, at least for a transitional phase, he demands.
And the Federal Office of Transport writes on request that the “non-digitals” should not be worse off.
Consumer protection obliges the cantons, which have an important say in shaping the conditions for transport companies.
“We have introduced cashless mini machines on four lines in Graubünden.”
Graubünden digitized, canton Basel-Landschaft put the brakes on
As an article in the Tamedia newspapers from 2022 shows, the canton of Basel-Landschaft has successfully resisted the complete banning of cash from Postbuses. On the other hand, the canton of Graubünden is in favor of switching to digital channels. The first cashless lines are now in operation, exclusively in the canton of Graubünden.
Postbus: Several digital payment options
As the Postbus media office writes, in addition to the well-known digital payment options through apps such as Easy Ride, the Venda ticket system has now been installed in the buses: “We have introduced cashless mini machines on four lines in Graubünden. On these lines, passengers who only have cash with them can purchase a value card from the driver (VendaPrepaid) and use it to buy their ticket at the machine.»
Those who are traveling with TWINT, debit cards or a Swisspass with a payment function can also use them to operate the mini machines on the bus.
According to the PostBus media office, a value card is also being developed, a type of prepaid card that will one day be used across the whole of Switzerland. This can be used to pay for the ticket at the mini vending machine. But that’s still music of the future.
Letting a child travel alone in a Postbus with a five-franc sack is likely to become less and less possible as time goes on. But if you want to buy your ticket at the train station counter or order it by phone, you can still do so.
You can still pay in cash in most postbuses
Only a few lines are affected anyway, exclusively in the canton of Graubünden. And Postbus writes: “We have 911 routes throughout Switzerland. In fact, passengers on all lines except those mentioned in Graubünden can buy their ticket from the driver, i.e. on over 99.5 percent of our lines.” The only question is for how long.