Getting Around Budapest Just Got Easier: New Bus Ticket Payments and Safer Crossings
Budapest keeps fine-tuning the everyday experience of getting around the city, and this month brings two welcome upgrades for visitors: you can now tap your card to buy a bus ticket on board, and one of the city’s busiest tram stops just got a lot safer to cross.
Tap to Pay: Bank Card Ticket Purchases Arrive on Select Buses
Starting September 8, tourists riding certain Budapest buses no longer need exact change or advance planning to buy a ticket on the spot. The Centre for Budapest Transport, known locally as BKK, has rolled out bank card payment for on-board paper tickets on bus lines 105, 210, and 210B, all routes that serve heavily touristed parts of the city. Previously, buying a single ticket directly from the driver meant cash only; now the driver’s portable card terminal accepts standard bank cards as well as virtual cards stored in digital wallets like Apple Pay or Google Pay. You’ll still receive the same paper ticket you’d get with cash, and it needs to be validated on board exactly the same way, but the payment itself is now instant and doesn’t require you to have forints on hand. BKK plans to expand the service further, with the 200E airport bus expected to gain card payment around mid-October, followed by lines 16, 16A, 116, 216, 178, and 26 in the first quarter of 2027. This sits alongside Budapest’s existing Pay&GO system, which already lets riders tap a bank card directly at the gates on every metro line and on the 100E Airport Express, gradually moving the whole network toward a simpler, cash-free way of paying as you go.
A Safer Crossing at Széna Square
Away from ticketing, Budapest has also finished a pedestrian safety upgrade at Széna Square, a busy square in the Second District where the Margit Boulevard tram stop meets a shopping centre entrance and heavy foot traffic. The redesigned crossing near the tram platform now includes a widened platform, improved sightlines, and tactile paving to assist visually impaired pedestrians, making the whole area easier and safer to navigate for everyone passing through, tourists included. The project is part of Budapest’s so-called Small-Scale Corrections Programme, a citywide initiative focused on quick, low-cost interventions like new pedestrian crossings, refuge islands, and cycling infrastructure rather than years-long construction projects. It’s built around the Vision Zero philosophy, the same road-safety framework used in cities worldwide, which prioritizes protecting human life over any other consideration in how streets and intersections are designed.
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A Summer of Small Fixes Across the City
Széna Square wasn’t an isolated project. Over the summer, similar improvements quietly appeared across several districts: new pedestrian refuge islands went in at intersections in District IV, a rebuilt crosswalk was completed in District XII near Márvány Street, and brand-new pedestrian crossings opened in District XIV at the Mogyoródi Road and Fischer István Street junction, in District XX at Wesselényi and Eperjes Streets, and in the Békásmegyer area along Madzsar József Street. Cycling upgrades are also in the pipeline, with a new bike lane planned for Üllői Road in District IX expected to be finished this autumn, and another one for Óceánárok Street in District IV likely arriving by year’s end.
What’s Coming Next
The programme’s second phase is already being prepared, with contracts expected to be signed soon and construction to follow at locations across the city, including Nagymező Street in the Sixth District, Kinizsi and Knézits Streets in District IX, Etele Square in District XI, and several junctions in Districts XIV, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XXI, and XXII. City planners expect five or six new pedestrian crossings from this second wave to be completed before the end of 2026, meaning the improvements you notice on this trip are just the start of a longer citywide push toward safer, more accessible streets.
The Takeaway for Visitors
None of these changes require you to do anything differently, and that’s rather the point. If you’re hopping on a bus near a major sight and only have a card on you, lines 105, 210, and 210B now have you covered, and it’s worth watching for that list to grow through the autumn and into 2027. And if your walking route takes you through Széna Square or past any of the newly upgraded crossings around town, you’ll simply notice smoother, clearer, better-marked crossings, small details, but exactly the kind that make navigating an unfamiliar city feel a little less stressful.
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