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Munich transit tickets - new swipe feature

Posted by (Abruzzo Mountains) on

I was in Munich briefly two weeks ago and thought I'd pass along a tip to a new feature in the MVV app (Munich transit system/Münchner Verkehrs Verbund.) It's called MVVswipe and it avoids all worries about how many zones your trip might cross or whether to buy a day ticket. Very simple to use, which the general MVV ticketing site/app is not (too many options, and a requirement to understand the zone map in Munich so you know what ticket to buy.)

Download the MVV app before your trip. Set up a profile, including a payment method. Then wander to your transit stop, open the swipe feature and swipe right to start a journey. Your card will be charged 10 Euros. When you finish your trip, with however many transfers required, swipe left to stop the journey. If you forget to swipe at the end, you will get a reminder on your phone. Rinse, repeat all day. Overnight you will be refunded or charged for the difference, using the best price available for the rides you took. The app also retains a record of your swiped rides and amounts charged.

This worked flawlessly for me. I had sweated over the details of my transit trips in advance, trying to understand where I crossed zones and which ticket would be cheapest. This was a great solution. Of course, this requires phone service and willingness to attach a payment method to the app. And I think ApplePay is not supported, because I ended up using PayPal as my payment method which is never my first choice.

I recommend it.

Posted by
3325 posts

So MVV has now also introduced FairTIQ. This is a system that has been used for public transit in Switzerland for a while, and many other systems are now adopting it as well. You can see an overview here:
https://fairtiq.com/en/area-of-validity

If you install the Fairtiq app itself you can actually use that one app in most of the areas where it is currently used. What you cannot yet do is use it across areas, so do not swipe in in Austria, and then swipe out again in Switzerland...

Posted by
952 posts

Yes, the swipe feature has been around since this year, I think. I don't know many people who use it, because if you live in Munich, you usually have an annual ticket with the MVG. But it's a good feature if you don't forget to swipe again when you get off :-) I was afraid that this would happen to me all the time .....

Posted by
22 posts

Thanks for the recommendation. I had read about this feature, but was unsure if it would be easy enough to use, forgetting to swipe when getting off. Will be there in late October.

Posted by
247 posts

This is written by an MVV swipe user. I only use public transport occasionally, so the swipe feature is perfect for me. But I'm not really used to checking out yet and will probably forget to do so at some point.

A few important notes:
- You need a mobile phone with an active data plan.
- If a group of several people are traveling together, only one user
should use the app and enter the other passengers in the app. Only
then can you benefit from the group day ticket, which is the best
option in most cases.
- If you forget to check in, you are traveling without a ticket and
will have to pay a fine if you are checked.
- If you forget to check out, you may end up paying more.

For me, the swipe function is the best option. Before that, I usually used strip tickets (a prepaid ticket for the value of 5 single trips in the M zone).

For visitors, I would always recommend a day ticket (which pays for itself with 3 single trips) or the group day ticket for 2 or more people.
This saves you from having to swipe in/out for each trip, but you have to decide each day whether you are staying in Munich (Zone M) or taking a trip outside the city (e.g., Dachau, Lake Starnberg, airport). The MVV app shows which zone is required for this.

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