Thread

1. hobo123 · 1791026169 · focus · HN ↗

   In Germany we used to have the Geldkarte (money card), which was similar to a credit card, but anonymous, it didn't require Internet, you could charge it with money at an ATM and use it for payments. You could also put bus tickets on it.

   Maybe 10 years ago the whole project was stopped, sadly, and now we have the plague that requires everyone including handicapped people and seniors to use (often old and insecure) smartphones.

   1. snottynose · 1791035747 · focus · HN ↗

      Recently took a bus from an airport in Nordrhein-Westfalen.

      Had to install an app, create an account with the bus agency, give way too many of my personal details including address and phone number. Needed a smartphone, internet connection, German-compatible digital payment method (2 out 3 payment methods did not work).

      This was a surreal experience. It literally took me about half an hour of struggling my way through a half-baked Germlish app to buy a single ticket, for a trip that I will probably make only once in my life. When the bus came, a very long line formed because, of course, most people assume you could just buy a ticket with the driver. I felt quite bad for this driver who probably had to deal with this every day. This particular bus only went once every two hours. It made me wonder whether any tourists had arrived there, waited 1½ hours for the bus, only to be rejected because they did not have a ticket and could not bribe the driver with physical euros. The airport apparently had no exchange offices.

      Compare: when I took the bus in Montenegro, I gave the bus driver a 2 euro coin and stepped inside the bus and it went.

      In most countries we had functional paper ticketing systems which were cheap, easy to understand and provided privacy. But they had to be replaced because . . . apps are cool???

      1. rsync · 1791054691 · focus · HN ↗

         "Recently took a bus from an airport in Nordrhein-Westfalen ..."

         Can anyone (Germans ?) confirm that this was, indeed, the only possible mechanism to pay for this single bus trip ?

         I'm genuinely curious as my experiences in Switzerland - as late as last November - were that many different durations and service levels of paper ticket were able to be purchased, with cash or bank card, from a ticket machine.

         Is the experience really that divergent in Germany ?

         1. frm88 · 1791102349 · focus · HN ↗

            German bus services are not publicly owned anymore and as private companies or conglomerates of companies they are free to implement whatever payment methods they see fit. I personally cannot speak to Nordrhein Westphalia or this particular bus company serving the airport but I had a similar experience in another state. The fare is significantly cheaper via smartphone (which refuses to install on Graphene) and the busdriver in question had no means to handle cash.

            Ticket machines are still available, but only in highly populated areas or on locations like central (railway) stations. All others have been eliminated.

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.