From country to country, city to city, one thing often stands common. The bus. For something so commonplace the means to utilize this forms of public transit can sometimes be cryptic. Suprisingly… this holds true in Romania as well.

Each town seems to have its own little nuances as far as the bus goes. Sibiu and Brasov both use a paper ticket system requiring a punch validation once on the bus. These tickets can be bought from kiosks throughout the city. Upon boarding the bus slide the ticket into one of the validation machines onboard and it will be stamped with a date and time. A single ride ticket can be validated once and a return trip ticket can be validated twice. A validated ticket is good for 50 minutes from the validation time at least in Brasov. This means multiple rides can be taken on a single validation.

Ticket kiosk

Bus validator

Validated return trip ticket.

Bucharest has a slightly different method to their bus madness. There are three options. Buy a paper Multiplu card, a plastic Activ card, or simply hope on the bus without a proper ticket and hope for the best.

The blue Multiplu cards are the cheapest option if the number of busrides through Bucharest is known. These can be loaded with a number of rides upon purchase but cannot be refilled once empty. The other option is an Activ card. These are green plastic cards and can be topped off with more rides any time. Each card costs a small fee, if many rides are going to be taken through Bucharest it may be worth it to get an Activ card and avoid repeated fees for the Multiplu cards. Validation of these work with RFID machines on the busses. Simply wave the card by the machine. Listen for the beep and validation has been completed.

Multiplu card

Activ card

Finally there is one last ticket type for busses in Bucharest. The red card. This is a card which is presented to a traveler on a bus without a validated ticket. This allows the traveler to go wherever they want for that day. The downside is the red card comes with a stiff fine. I had the privilege of traveling with one of these on my last day in Bucharest. The fine ranges from 50 Romanian Ron to 150 Ron I assume 150 Ron being for repeat offenders and 50 Ron being a “warning”.

A friend and I we’re in the process of going to the airport, she was headed home and then I was heading deep into the Romanian mountains, We got a fine for riding on the wrong bus with the wrong ticket. The funny thing was the tickets we had were for an express bus route (more expensive. Think $.75 oppose to $.35) but we were on a normal route to the airport instead.

At one of the stops a Troup of ticket validating agents boarded the train wearing very official looking vests. They swiftly realized our tickets were not validated, and they promptly jumped into action. Starting by seizing our passports. This was logical seeing as how we were dangerous fare dodgers with nothing to lose. The one “ticket officer” was very disappointed that rules had been broken and wanted us to “be example. Pay maximum penalty!” (150 Ron per person /$37) the other was very willing to look the other way because we had paid double for what the current ride was worth. We were also playing up the we are stupid foreigners angle. They settled on accepting a 50 Ron ($12.50) b̶r̶i̶b̶e̶ fine from each of us. Gave us “receipts” and passports and went on their way. A not all around unpleasant experience. The ticket agents were very patient, professional, and respectful and were very helpful guiding us through our real-life rendition of crime and punishment.

Naughty red card