Price Cut In Budapest Public Transport – The Passes Cost 10% Less

Price cuts will also be introduced in Budapest public transport. On 14 November 2013 the General Assembly of Budapest approved the motion for BKK’s public transport pass prices to be decreased by 10% from 1 January 2014.

Proposed by Mayor István Tarlós and Szilárd Németh, member of the General Assembly of the Municipality, costs of the most frequently purchased pass types required for daily commutes to work and school will be reduced. BKK has taken measures in recent years, due to which public transport fare revenues have significantly increased: the opening hours of ticket offices have been extended, ticket sales by drivers on board have been continuously introduced on more and more vehicles. Additionally, the system of revenue protection has been completely reorganised: BKK has made ticket inspection more effective and the front-door-boarding only policy has been introduced on more routes. A total of 300 new ticket vending machines will be installed in Budapest and the implementation of the automated fare-collection scheme (AFC) will also start in 2014.

Decreased fares will only apply to natural persons (individuals) not to businesses.

Owing to the decision, natural persons will be able to purchase the following types of passes at a 10% lower price from 1 January 2014:

monthly Budapest-pass (full price): instead of HUF 10,500 it will cost HUF 9,500
discounted annual Budapest-pass: instead of HUF 114,600 it will cost HUF 103,00
Budapest-pass for students: instead of HUF 3,850 it will cost HUF 3,450
Budapest-pass for pensioners: instead of HUF 3,700 it will cost HUF 3,330.

In addition, also the following types of passes are going to cost less:

weekly supplement for Budapest pass: instead of HUF 2,700 it will cost HUF 2, 450
14-day Budapest pass: instead of HUF 7,000 it will cost HUF 6,300
Monthly Budapest pass for parents with small children: instead of HUF 3,850 it will cost HUF 3,450
Quarterly Budapest pass: instead of HUF 31,500 it will cost HUF 28,500
Quarterly Budapest pass for students: instead of HUF 11, 100 it will cost HUF 10,350
Quarterly Budapest pass for pensioners: instead of HUF 11,100 it will cost HUF 9,990
Semester Budapest pass for students: instead of HUF 18,000 it will cost HUF 16,200
Annual Budapest pass: instead of HUF 126,000 it will cost HUF 114,000 (12x HUF 9,500)
Annual discounted Budapest pass for students (both the one-page and the 12-slip types): instead of HUF 42,000 it will cost HUF 37,800
Annual discounted Budapest pass for pensioners (both the one-page and the 12-slip types): instead of HUF 40,700 it will cost HUF 36,600
Annual all-line Budapest pass: it will cost HUF 103, 000.

Public transport is the most important public service under the pricing authority of Municipality of Budapest. The transport governance system has been reformed to a significant extent including the reorganisation of the Budapest Transport Company (BKV) to improve effectiveness. Mayor István Tarlós and Szilárd Németh emphasised in their proposal that in the three years after its inception BKK has taken several measures to increase public transport fare revenues.

opening hours of ticket offices have been extended
on-board ticket sales by drivers have been introduced on a wider scale ticket inspection has been reorganised completely and become more effective and the front-door-only boarding policy has become more widespread. Along with these measures BKK made the possibility of ticket purchase easier since these measures are intended to help passengers in obtaining tickets and passes more easily and not to issue more fines
300 new ticket vending machines will be installed in Budapest and the implementation of the AFC scheme will start in 2014

These steps result in BKK’s increased revenues expected to be HUF 56 billion in 2013, compared to the revenues collected by BKV in 2010 in the amount of HUF 50 billion, making the decrease of fares possible.
The price cut will affect approximately 800,000 people in Budapest; thus BKK makes the financial burden of almost each family in Budapest and its metropolitan area lighter.

Between 2002 and 2010 the inflation rate was 58.8%, while in this period public transport fares rose by 142%, in other words the increase was 2.5 times more than the inflation; in real terms fares increased by 52.4 %.
The percentage of fare reduction was 3% (in case of student and pensioner passes, it was 10%) between 2010 and 2014, while the inflation rate was 17.3%, which means that in real terms prices were decreased by 10-24%. Meanwhile, public transport has become more efficient, new buses have been put into operation and the refurbishment of trams has begun.