Ticket office

Atmosphere at a ticket office at Amsterdam Centraal station (sound document)

A ticket counter (out of date ticket issuing or Fka ), in Switzerland the ticket counter is a facility where tickets for public transport can be purchased and information can be obtained. Such counters are typically located at stops of said means of transport ( train station , bus station , ferry terminal , airport ).

history

Until the 1980s , buying tickets at the counter was common. After that , ticket vending machines became popular, starting with local transport . With the Austrian Federal Railways and Deutsche Bahn , ticket purchases from machines are common even for long-distance transport . In Austria, a surcharge is levied for owners of an ÖBB Vorteilscard when buying at the counter. This should have been introduced in Germany in 2008. However, after violent protests, Deutsche Bahn took it back. Buying tickets via the Internet is also replacing the classic ticket counter, so that ticket sales at smaller train stations have often been abandoned.

In larger train stations, ticket offices are often located in a separate counter hall. At Deutsche Bahn, these are usually referred to as travel centers . On mainline railways , ticket sales in smaller stations are often handled by the dispatcher .