Public transport Alliance Swisspass launches rechargeable payment card
Alliance Swisspass is launching a rechargeable payment card for public transport. The card is anonymous, transferable and available immediately, the Swiss public transport industry organization announced on Tuesday.
02.12.2025, 14:25
SDA
The prepaid card, which passengers can use to pay for their tickets contactlessly at all points of sale and ticket machines as well as cashless machines, will be launched at BLS railroads in the canton of Bern and in the A-Welle area, among others. Other transport companies are to follow in the coming years, Alliance Swisspass also announced.
Passengers can now purchase and top up the new prepaid card online or at all points of sale of participating transport companies throughout Switzerland. In the cantons of Bern, Solothurn, Fribourg and Basel-Landschaft, the impersonal cards are also available in selected post offices as part of a one-year pilot project.
According to Alliance Swisspass, other transport companies are set to follow in the coming years.
Non-personalized and rechargeable
Public transport users already have the option of buying tickets without a smartphone or credit card with the Swisspass card. But unlike the personalized Swisspass, where they normally pay for tickets by monthly invoice, the new prepaid card is firstly not personalized and therefore anonymous and secondly rechargeable, Alliance Swisspass also announced.
According to the industry organization, around 76 percent of passengers now buy their public transport tickets digitally and cashlessly, with fewer and fewer using ticket counters and ticket machines.
Alliance Swisspass assumes that around 90 percent of public transport customers will buy their tickets online by 2035. However, the fact that everything in public transport will be digitally accessible in the future does not mean that everything has to be completely digital.
