Berlin, October 16th, 2026 (The Berlin Spectator) – Berlin’s public transport provider BVG runs all U-Bahn trains (metro, underground, tube, subway) in the city, all trams and most bus lines. This state-owned company transports some 1.1 billion passengers per year. All of them need to purchase tickets one way or another.
Some have monthly tickets or the “Deutschlandticket”, others use the 24-hour ticket, the Berlin Welcome Card or the City Tour Card. All tickets can be purchased at counters available at large stations such as Alexanderplatz or Ostbahnhof. There is an app too. And we have large and bulky ticket machines. You approach one of those old-fashioned monsters, search for coins in your right pocket and drop them in the machine. Before you can use your ticket, you need to stick it into a machine that validates it. If you forget this last step, or if you don’t even know about it because you’re a tourist, you will be fined.
While the app is relatively modern, those ticket machines are not. The new validator, a slim device, is supposed to resolve this issue. Obviously, the BVG is sparing no expense. Guess when those new validators are supposed to be installed: Tomorrow? No. Next month? No. Next year? No. They will appear starting in 2029.
More Convenient
But those validators are worth the wait because they will make purchasing tickets great again. According to the BVG, those new machines are “simpler, more uniform, and more intuitive”. No more reading manuals or getting lost in complicated menus. On buses, trams and at U-Bahn stations, we will just have to touch the new validator with a BVG card, debit card, credit card or smartphone. Within milliseconds, we will own the ticket that takes us from A to B, from B to C and back to A.
As many as 3,600 validators will be installed. They are the new pride of Berlin’s public transport. BVG Sales Director Michael Beer is enthusiastic: “Anyone getting around Berlin shouldn’t have to spend a long time figuring out where and how to buy a ticket”, he stated. “With a technology that has proven itself internationally, we will make buying tickets simpler, faster, and more convenient in the future. It doesn’t matter whether our passengers are traveling by bus, tram, or U-Bahn.”
In recent years, the way passengers purchase their BVG tickets has changed. More than 50 percent are bought through apps. At those old ticket machines, three in four tickets are paid for by card, Paypal or in similar ways. At the same time, the number of tickets sold inside trams or buses is decreasing. On average, bus drivers sell only three tickets per day.
AB vs. ABC
Berlin’s new validator, the most modern ticket machine the city won’t have for another three years, is supposed to replace the old technology step by step. On those new machines, passengers will be able to choose between AB and ABC tickets, depending on whether they intend to go to the outskirts in neighboring Brandenburg or stay inside the Berlin boundaries. Whoever goes to BER Airport in Schönefeld, or whoever comes to Berlin from there, needs the slightly more expensive ABC ticket.
By the time the validator is installed, we can finally forget printed tickets because ours will be saved in the cloud. How futuristic is that?