The transport system of the German city of Munich is an extensive and well-developed network of various modes of transport. This includes the subway, and the city electric train (similar to Russian electric trains), and buses with trams, and, of course, taxis that are familiar to everyone.
The city does not suffer from a lack of public transport. If a tourist needs to get to the hotel, then both budget options and slightly more expensive ones will be at hand.
In addition, using public transport you can easily reach all the necessary places, cafes, restaurants, shopping centers and attractions located even in the regional territories of Munich.
general information
Everyone is probably familiar with jokes about German clarity, and this also applies to Munich public transport. Absolutely all of its species have their own schedule, which is most often noted at stops, including metro stations. The route of the necessary bus or tram is also shown there. The subway is additionally endowed with an interactive scoreboard, where the time remaining before the arrival of the train is written.
All information about travel by public transport in Munich is located on the official website, which is called very simply and concisely - "Transport and Tariff Union of Munich." Using the available lists of all buses, you can create your own route and safely go on a trip to the central city of Bavaria.
Metro
The most convenient transport around the world is usually recognized as the metro (U-Bahn). For Munich, public transport in the form of high-speed trains moving underground is perhaps the most comfortable. No traffic jams and subsequent delays in meetings or important negotiations.
Today, there are about a hundred stations covering all urban areas. The network itself leads from anywhere in Munich to its center. The system of the subway device is very different from the Russian one, since there can be several trains of different colors on the same line, and each with its own numbering (for example, U1), so you should check the map before sending and make sure the number of the selected line is correct.
The metro runs from four in the morning until one in the morning, on weekends until two in the afternoon after midnight.
Fortunately, everyone with psychological trauma of their childhood due to the frantic Moscow turnstiles has no such vehicles in the Munich underground transport. No one checks the ticket upon boarding, but it is necessary to buy and recapture it yourself using a special device. If the controller is already on the road and finds out that the passenger has no ticket, he will write down an inevitable fine of forty euros.
Train
Do not be surprised, but Munich's public transport is also represented by trains. They are called S-Bahn. Finding them is very simple - you need to go down again to any underground station located in the central part of the city. Inside there are two signs - one for the U-Bahn and one for the S-Bahn. But how does it differ from ordinary metro trains?
S-Bahn is really a real train with ten lines, it’s just to the center that it goes underground and thus connects to the subway station, along which lines, for example, from S1 to S7, move. Only in contrast to the subway trains, with the help of an electric train, you can get out of the city border, and even get to the airport using the S1 lines; S8.
Bus
The next type of public transport in Munich is the bus. This is a fairly convenient means of transportation on the city streets, but the twelve night routes are a huge plus. After all, tourists will not always want to return to the hotel before midnight.
In addition, there are sixty-five daytime routes. They are divided into three types:
- All lines 50 to 60, as well as 62 and 63, were given to the Metro bus. These lines connect the most popular urban transport hubs in Munich, large hypermarkets, shopping centers and urban areas.
- All route lines from 130th to 159th belong to the usual city bus called Stad bus. Moreover, buses running on routes 130-159 completely capture the central part and the southern urban region. Lines 160-169 run only in the south of Munich. 170-179 pass through the entire northern part. The northeast is occupied by lines 180-189 and the southeast is crammed with routes 190-199. Among the city’s guests, Route 100, passing by twenty-four museums, is very popular. It is even secretly called the "museum line".
- All special night routes are indicated by Taxi bus. They begin their work at eleven o'clock in the evening and finish at six in the morning. Their location map should be carefully studied on the official website of Munich Transport.
Tram
But who wants to ride on the oldest public transport in Munich, tram tickets are already waiting for him. Yes, it is the tram rails that belong to the very first public transport of the Bavarian town.
The tram was first launched in 1876 and today there are two types of routes - night and day, however, like his fellow bus.
11 daily routes are represented by lines: 12, from 15 to 21, 23, 25, 27 and 28.
Four nights - 16, 19, 20, 27. A huge plus is that the day tram leaves the depot at 4:30 in the morning and returns back to the night parking at 1:30. Accordingly, in this break night horned buses come into play.
Taxi
But not for everyone in Munich, transport is a convenient option, therefore, for more selective persons, as in any other city in the world, taxi services are available. They are punctual with German pedantry and quite comfortable. Landing begins with a price tag of four euros, and then the passenger pays for the distance traveled already.
For example, with a route of ten or more kilometers, the price per kilometer will be one euro and twenty-five cents. One hour of waiting will cost twenty-three euros or more. Also in the city there is a popular carrier "Kiwi taxi", offering fixed prices to the airport or another city.
Munich public transport scheme
Absolutely all schemes and maps regarding Munich public transport can be found on the official website. There are detailed routes for all lines of the bus, tram, train, subway and nightly options.
Taking into account the fact that the subway and train are nevertheless the most convenient for all possible movements, it will be more useful to download exactly the S-Bahn and U-Bahn cards to your smartphone in the required format.
Munich public transport rates on the maps are marked in different colors. For example, white color indicates the inner zone, where most of the iconic sights are located. Accordingly, to travel on it you should buy a special ticket. It will operate throughout the area marked in white. This will be discussed below.
Tariff zones of the city
For someone who first came to stay in Munich, such a design of the transport system may seem too complicated, all because the price of the trip depends on the distance, and not on the mode of transport.
That is, having bought a ticket on the subway, you can use it both on the bus and on the tram. Thus, tickets for public transport in Munich are the same, as are the tariff zones for them.
So, let us dwell in more detail on the color differences of the existing tariff zones. There are four of them:
- Already mentioned white or inner, on the map will be indicated as Innerratum. In addition to the central area, it includes major city attractions, including the Olympic Park and the BMW Museum
- Munich XXL or the union of the white and green zones.
- The outer zone is combined in green, yellow and red; on the map it can be found under the name Ausserraum.
- And finally, the last option is a combined zone of all of the above - Gesamtnetz. A ticket for such a tariff zone will be needed by the person who travels to the airport.
Single ticket
Since tickets for public transport in Munich can be used on absolutely all types of vehicles in the city, then you just need to decide on the area in which a person will travel. Once again, it is worth mentioning that, having a single ticket, you can freely change the type of transport within the zone for which it was paid.
What types of tickets are there and what is their cost? Tickets sold locally are called Einzelfahrt. In the inner zone, their shelf life is three hours, in the remaining zones - four. Prices for them vary:
- One zone - 2.90 euros.
- Two zones - 5.80 euros.
- Three zones - 8.70 euros.
- Four zones - 11.60 euros
- A short trip costs one euro 50 cents. This ticket is valid for an hour and applies only to one zone, which is why it is called "short". It can be used in the subway or train, provided that the trip is two stops and the tram or bus, if the trip will last up to four stops.
In the presence of a child from 6 to 14 years, the cost is 1.50 euros, regardless of what type of ticket was chosen. Accordingly, children under six years of age use transport for free.
Among the tickets for public transport in Munich, there is such an interesting tool as strips. They are called Streifenkarte.
The cost of 10 strips of tickets is equal to thirteen euros and fifty cents, that is, one strip costs fifty euros. One can be used in the 1st zone for sixty minutes.
When traveling in excess of one hour, a person uses two strips. If he needs to travel through two zones, then he uses four pieces, in three - six, and in all four zones - eight.
Benefits are provided to people aged 15 to 20 - they use one strip for each zone without a time limit.
For a tourist who has arrived for a few days in Munich, it will be more profitable to purchase a ticket without restrictions. That is, without a movement limit. They are of several types, as always it all depends on the number of zones and duration:
- Daily on a white zone of Single-Tageskarte Innenraum - 6.70 euros.
- Three days on a white zone of Single-Tageskarte Innenraum - 16.80 euros.
- One day in the white and green areas of Single-Tageskarte München XXL - 8.90 euros.
- One day in the green, yellow and red zones of Außenraum - 6.70 euros.
- One day in the four zones of Single-Tageskarte Gesamtnetz - 13 euros.
A children's day ticket is called - Die Kinder-Tageskarte. It applies to children from six to fourteen years old in all available urban transport zones and costs 3.20 euros.
Particular attention should be paid to the fact that the ticket does not work for a day, as a person is used to counting from midnight, but from the moment of his “breaking through” in the payment terminal until six in the morning the next day. When purchasing a ticket on a bus or tram, the date and time on it will be stamped automatically.
Group ticket and airport ticket
Often, families come to Germany to relax with entire families or tourist groups of "savages", without the participation of an excursion guide. In this case, buying a ticket for public transport is more profitable for the whole group, if everyone adheres to the same plan. In Munich there are group passes Gruppen-Tageskarte. They act on five adults or ten children (2 babies go for one older person).
The cost depends on the number of coverage areas and the duration of the ticket:
- The daily allowance for the white zone of Innenraum is 12.80 euros.
- Three-day white zone Innenraum - 29.60 euros.
- The daily allowance for the white and green areas of München XXL is 16.10 euros.
- Three-day on the green, yellow and red zones of Außenraum - 12.80 euros.
- The daily allowance for the four zones of Gesamtnetz is 24.10 euros.
A ticket to the airport stands apart. It can also be purchased for one person, or for a group of up to five adults. Airport-city-day-ticket is one-day and is valid in all transport areas.
The ticket starts working from the moment of purchase (the date and time are stamped on the ticket automatically) and until six in the morning of the next day.
You can buy it both in the airport terminal and at the train stations. The cost per person for Single-Tageskarte Gesamtnetz is 13 euros, for the Gruppen-Tageskarte Gesamtnetz group - 24.30 euros.
Other types of transport tickets
In addition, there are special tourist cards (City Tour card). They can be used to travel by public transport and to receive discounts in eighty city sights (details on the official Munich transport website).
You can buy it at electric train stations, at the airport, in self-service machines at the central railway station of the city by pressing the Kombitickets key, in hotels and tourist offices, as well as online on the citytourcard website.
If a person rides in transport with his vehicle (bicycle), then he also needs to buy a Fahrrad Tageskarte ticket, it costs about three euros.
For those who come for a week or for a longer period, it makes sense to buy the appropriate tickets.
So, for 7 days (Isar card Woche) it can cost from 14 euros to 60 euros, it all depends on the selected tariff zones. Its action begins on Monday at noon (12:00) and ends on Monday at the same time. Monthly prices range from 50 to 220 euros.
Bavarian ticket
A very interesting ticket called "Bavarian". Its effect spreads throughout Bavaria, and also through it you can get to Salzburg and go back.
But it should be borne in mind that such a ticket works exclusively on regional and RE trains, and it will not work for high-speed trains. Moreover, it is used in the Munich metro and trains.
Its cost usually starts from 25 euros. For each next person, six more euros are attributed. In total, up to five people can travel on a ticket, in which case the cost will be fifty euros.
The Bavarian ticket is valid from 9:00 to 3:00 on weekdays, and on weekends from 00:00 to 3:00 the very next day. There is also a special nightly Bavarian ticket, open from 18:00 until 6:00.
Rules for ticket purchase in the machine
Buying all of the above tickets in Munich is very simple. It is only necessary to find a special terminal. Moreover, in many built-in Russian. First, the passenger must decide on the interface language convenient for him, and then select the type of ticket needed, as well as the coverage area. The following is the number of tickets purchased and the payment option - in cash or by credit card.