Contactless in Budapest

On the metro, and on one bus route. BKK — Budapesti Közlekedési Központ, the authority that runs Budapest's metro, trams, buses and the HÉV suburban railway — calls the scheme Budapest Pay&GO, and the list of places it works is a closed one: the four metro lines M1, M2, M3 and M4, and the 100E Repülőtéri Expressz, the airport bus. That is the whole list.

Where it works, the tap is a purchase rather than a season of travel. Hold a Mastercard or Visa card, or a phone or watch carrying one, against a Pay&GO device at a metro station entrance and it buys and validates one single ticket in the same movement. There is no tap-out, nothing accumulates behind the scenes and there is no daily ceiling — a second journey is a second tap and a second full fare — and it has to be the same card every time.

The exclusions matter more than the inclusions here. There is no Pay&GO device to tap on a tram, on an ordinary city bus, on a trolleybus, on the HÉV, on the Budavári Sikló — the funicular up to the castle — or on the Zugligeti Libegő chairlift, and a ticket bought with Pay&GO is not valid on any of them either. On the last two that means only that there is nothing to tap: the Sikló sells at its ticket office and takes a bank card there, and the Libegő sells from machines that take a card at every one. On a tram, a bus, a trolleybus or the HÉV it means what it says, and boarding with only a bank card is travelling without a ticket: 25,000 Ft, reduced to 12,000 Ft if you pay the inspector on the spot or settle within 2 working days.

The 100E works differently again. Its Pay&GO device is mounted at every door of the bus rather than at a station, and the tap buys the separate airport ticket, not the ordinary city fare; no ordinary Budapest ticket or pass is valid on the 100E at all.

So use the card for the metro and for the 100E, and for a tram, a bus or the HÉV buy first — in the BudapestGO app, at a ticket machine, at a ticket office or at a BKK customer centre.

Yes, on all four lines. The Pay&GO devices stand at the station entrances of M1, M2, M3 and M4. Tap a Mastercard or Visa card, or a phone or watch carrying one, and the device buys and validates a single ticket in one movement — that is the whole transaction. There is no tap-out on the way out, nothing accrues towards a daily ceiling, and every fresh journey is a fresh tap at full price. Keep using the same card.

What the tap does not buy is a ride on anything else. The ticket it issues is valid on the metro lines and, in its own separate form, on the 100E airport bus, and BKK says plainly that it is not valid on other services — so it will not carry you out of a metro station and onto a tram, a bus or the HÉV. Being on one of those without a ticket costs 25,000 Ft, or 12,000 Ft paid to the inspector on the spot or within 2 working days.

Tap at the entrance before you go down, and if the rest of your journey leaves the metro, buy that leg separately in the BudapestGO app or at a machine before you board.

Only on the 100E Repülőtéri Expressz, the airport bus. Its Pay&GO devices are mounted at every door of the bus, and a tap with a Mastercard or Visa card, or a phone or watch, buys and validates the separate airport ticket on the spot. That ticket is the only kind valid on the 100E — no ordinary Budapest single or pass covers it — and it is good for one direct trip with no transfer and no return.

On every other bus in Budapest, and on the trolleybuses, the answer is no. BKK's list of where Pay&GO works names the metro lines and the 100E and nothing else, and it makes the point twice over: a ticket bought by tapping is not valid on those services either. There is no Pay&GO reader at an ordinary bus door. Whether the driver or an inspector would take a bank card for an on-the-spot sale is not something this page can give you: BKK publishes the higher on-the-spot price without ever saying what the seller accepts, and it names that sale on certain tram lines and on the blue VOLÁN regional buses rather than on an ordinary city bus. Either way, boarding with just a card in your pocket is travelling without a ticket: 25,000 Ft, or 12,000 Ft if you pay the inspector on the spot or settle within 2 working days.

For an ordinary bus, buy before you board — in the BudapestGO app, at a ticket machine, at a ticket office or at a BKK customer centre. A ticket bought on board or from staff, where that is possible at all, costs 700 Ft instead of the usual 500 Ft.