How to get around in Göteborg?
January 7, 2009 – 1:55 pmGöteborg is one of the best cities in terms of public transport connection in Sweden, probably Europe. The public transportation in the city is solely taken care by a company called Västtrafik. It looks after the trains, trams, buses and ferries in the Västra Götaland region of Sweden. The good thing about the transportation system in the city is that a commuter can use the same ticket or transportation card in side the city no matter what mode of transportation he/she choose to travel in.
Modes of payment
1. Monthly cards : If you will be living in the city for a pretty long time say a month, Monthly card will probably the most economic for you. If you want to stay longer you can even buy a trimonthly or yearly card.
2. Coupon cards : If you will be living in the city for very short period of time say a week or so, coupon cards “Maxi rabbat” will be useful for you. It costs and is charged with 100 SEK. When travelling on any mode of transportation you have to pay 2 coupons (around 16 SEK) if you are adult and 1 coupon (around 8 SEK) if you are below 12. You can use the same coupon until 90 mins to use any other mode of transportation.
3. Coins: If you cannot find a place to buy coupons or cards, most of the trams, ferries and trains are equiped with ticket vending machines, where you can drop coins and buy tickets. There are options of quite a few languages and since you are reading this article in English, I assume that you will switch to English. 2 coupons costs your 25 SEK in the vending machines.
4. SMS: If you don’t have any of the above things with you but have a cell phone, you are lucky. You can pay for coupons using SMS. For procedure of the payment please look at the bus/tram stops for instructions or ask the driver.
Important: If you are caught commuting without a ticket or coupons, you will be fined 700 SEK !!!
How to find which tram / bus / ferry to your destination and manage time?
The easiest way to find this is use vasttrafik web search tool where you can type in your location and desitination. It will show you possible routes and times. visit http://vasttrafik.se/en/ .
If you don’t have access to the web then you can use time tables published by vasttrafik. These time tables are available in the ticket counter at Central Station or available on bus / tram stops. It may take a while for you to understand it but you can always ask somebody waiting for tram or bus.
In major stops, there is a LED display which tells you about next arrival time of bus/tram going towards your destination. It will be very useful to know where area of the city are you going to, in order to easily find a route.