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If the customers pay the bus ticket in cash on the bus and the bus is late, this annoys the drivers and passengers.
By 2035, all ticket machines should disappear from train stations, buses and trams. The machines are expensive and complex to operate. The public transport industry relies on solutions with smartphones. But if you don’t want to or can’t buy the ticket with your smartphone, you can now buy the bus ticket from the driver or the driver himself in the vehicle. That’s no longer up to date, say the public transport companies and are examining alternatives.
In Aargau, a pilot project is running on bus line 340 between Wohlen in Freiamt and Meisterschwanden in Seetal. A 90-year-old woman gets on and wants to buy a ticket: from where to where is she going? Does she have a Half-Fare travelcard? She answers the questions and pays cash, the chauffeur gives her ticket and change. However, the bus driver loses valuable time, which is why the bus cannot keep to the timetable in the worst case.
Passengers with the subscription get annoyed when we always miss the connection.
Two or three ticket sales could already delay a trip, says bus driver and dispatcher Mirdas Sabanoski. “It’s like this every morning, especially in the rush hour when the buses are full. Those with a subscription or a GA get annoyed when we keep missing the connection.» Expect ten seconds per stop. Ticket sales are no longer there, says Sabanoski.
Legend:
Ensuring connections: This is a high priority for the transport operator. The sign is on a bus operated by Aargau Verkehr.
Alex Moser/SRF
Of course, with the SBB app, the Fairtiq app and comparable offers or with a subscription in your wallet, there are already various cashless ticket options. In order to find a solution for the 90-year-old lady in our example without her stopping the bus driver, Aargau Verkehr is now running a one-year pilot project. A new device should help.
Buy ticket without help yourself
It is a new technology that has been installed on the buses for several weeks. A small box with which the ticket can be bought contactless and cashless by pressing the display. Payment is not made with coins, but only with a bank card, credit or debit card.
The box is installed in the bus. The passenger has to choose the right zone, pay, done. No paper ticket is issued, the ticket is stored on the means of payment and can be accessed by the controller using an app. Two zones can be selected, the zone plan is attached to the bus.
Variant with a future?
A very similar solution is being tested in the canton of Graubünden: a pre-paid solution. Customers can have credit loaded onto a card, the Swisspass for example, and then use it to buy a ticket without cash. “These payment methods will prevail,” says Reto Hügli from the industry organization Alliance Swisspass.
In Aargau, the ticket on bus line 340 can only be bought from the driver until March, after that only by means of a box. Then it should be shown whether the system is the solution. So far it has rarely been used, but it is still new, according to Aargau Verkehr.
Legend:
The device from Conduent, which is being tested in Aargau.
SRF
Aargau Verkehr is now testing the new system for a total of one year. There is also a video explaining exactly how to buy the ticket.
For bus driver Mirdas Sabanoski, the journeys without coins would be a great advantage. Until now, he has had to bring the coins to the bank himself. “We throw the money into the bank’s coin-operated machine, which spits out the amount and we have to pay three percent of this amount ourselves.” Costs that the bus drivers have to bear. So you hardly mourn the loss of coin payments.
After all, the 90-year-old lady can buy a ticket without a smartphone. However, cash ticket sales will soon be a thing of the past.