A few questions about the bus system

I've asked a few people and our neighbors about the bus system and no one seems to know. When I met with my son's school they didn't either so I'm sort of at a lost.

On the public transportation website it says that the child rides free until school age. No one can tell me what age that is. I have heard 6 and 5 and that it doesn't matter if he is going to school he must pay. My son is going to preschool/Pre-K and is 4 years old.

Another person told me he rides half price. But when I got the tickets I was told there is only one 24 hour pass for the 9,00 Zloty.

I hope to next week get the actual bus passes through the post office or what not but tomorrow I'd like to take him into school for the first day if I can get over this one little hang up.

Additionally is the post office the best place to go for the bus passes?

And lastly what does it mean by 1 line? Like I can only ride the 222 bus with the pass? I'd like to get a pass for my husband and I (one each), and then our son if need be and I'd like for it to work on the tram, bus, metro but I get all confused when it mentions zones and then the lines. Thank you!

It usually depends where.. different municipal areas have different bus networks and prices may vary. Free until school age - as long as your child is learning in a school and HAS GOT A VALID SCHOOL ID with him he is entitled to get the concessionary ticket's price ( public transport). Same thing with university students.

1 line ticket means if you leave the bus after validating your ticket, you are no longer allowed to use it again. There are in some places special tickets with a transfer possibility.


You can buy a one line ticket in every kiosk or newsagents. If you want a monthly pass you you'd probably have to go to your local post office or the main bus station..

school children pay half the price


it is quite logical they don't have discounted buspasses for the children


I think your son can use buses for free


yes - there are various kinds of buspasses - this one must be bilet miesięczny na jedną linię - one line monthly buspass - these are considerably cheaper than 'przejazdówki' or 'bilety na okaziciela' - 'przejazdówka'/'bilet na okaziciela' is also is also valid for a period of time but you can use all/most of the city transport - this kind of pass is very expensive in London for example (there are city transportation zones in London) - don't know about the situation in Warsaw

Don't tell us where you live, that can make it easier.

at least not those one-day buspasses - the monthly ones are a different thing

As I remember Chipmunk lives in Warsaw so I advice reading this:

ztm.waw.pl/index.php?c=126&l=2

But if you have already been to the website...

So to say something about he tickets...
There are two main types of tickets:
single journey - normal and discounted for a single ride with one mean of transport
for certain periods - 20 min, 40 min, day, 3 days, week, month, 3 months also normal and discounted.
The second allow you to change buses, trams, subway etc., in the certain period of time from validating the ticket. Tickets with duration longer than a day allow you also on trains of Koleje Mazowieckie and SKM within ticket zones...

Because both kind of tickets operate either in 1st (City of Warsaw) or in 1st and 2nd zone (city+aglomeration - Piaseczno, Konstancin, Legionowo, Otwock etc)...

Tickets for a month and 3 months are coded on personalised magnetic cards...

You can buy tickets at newsagents (mostly the shorter) or from ticket machines that are mostly at subway stations (there you can also "load" your magnetic card).

Card itself can be obtained in ZTM office at Swiętokrzyska subway station.

I hope I helped you somehow...

Regards

Lukasz

Lukasz

Yeah I checked out the website and I was still confused.

Made it on the bus this morning.. pretty uneventful, just how I like it.

I've been able to figure it all out (thanks for the responses it did hell) and then I went and got our passes. Thankfully... It's so exhausting figuring all of this out. I know though once we do the rest of our time here will be so much fun!

One last question. For this 90 day bus pass, how do I validate it? For the ticket today I just slid it in the slot and it stamped it but do I need to do anything for the pass or do I just hold onto it and show it if asked?

Thank you!

Just hold onto it - it contains the details of your ticket on it and doesn't need validated.

I'm not too familiar with Warsaw, but the usual idea is to keep the pass on you and leave the receipt at home in a safe place - then if the card refuses to work, you just take the receipt to them and any fine given for not having a valid ticket will be cancelled.

Not quite true. The first time you use it you need to validate it, i.e. put it close to that validating machine (how the heck do you call this thing in English, btw?), if it's gonna go "beep" and flash green light it means that everything is okay with your pass. Then, for the next 90 days you just hold on to it.


AFAIK, there are ZTM offices at Ratusz Arsenał and Centrum metro stations as well.

Be careful though! Unless you haven't obtained a such one, from the 1st of January 2010 magnetic passes (Warszawska Karta Miejska) have to be personalised with your photo put onto it (I haven't re-changed my old one yet, so no advise from me until then).


You may buy a pass which is either un-validated (then you can wait with the validation until the time you want to use your pass) or have it validated at the purchase (they often ask you if you want them to validate it for you). If you are re-loading your old pass within its present period of validity for the same-time next period, it's validated automatically (the validation is being prolonged for this next period). If later, you again must have it validated or validate it for yourself. It's always good to check by holding the pass onto the ticket machine (reader) as the reader reads a pass or validates an un-validated one.

It's important to validate your pass or have it validated at the purchase! Once I re-loaded my 30-day pass, but forgot to validate it. I was using it all the month thinking I was OK. I wasn't, and if a controller had come to check, I would have had to pay a fine as my pass was not valid. When I went to re-load it for a next period, the assistant at the post-office was unable to do it since it was charged and not activated (validated). I bought a new pass as they couldn't explain why the machine cannot re-load my pass!!!

Validator is what I call it, but there might be a better word. It's what they use in Berlin anyway to describe the machines - so I guess it works.

Funny that you need to validate it though - the Poznan system is 'loaded' automatically. Shows that you learn something new every day! Does it mean that the Warsaw system allows you to buy a ticket and not start using it straight away?

Thank you!! I will try that out tomorrow morning! It may be validated already, but I'll look for my green light!

Yup. If you fancy it, you may validate it 5 years after buying ;) But that's only when you have an "empty" card, with no ticket recorded on it or an expired ticket recorded. If you record one ticket on another (which is not as silly as it may seem, I sometimes do that e.g. one day before the ticket expires so that I don't have to worry later), it is validated automatically.


Don't forget the "beep"! ;)