Digital instead of printing – student was thrown off the bus despite a valid ticket

It seems a bit of a stone age in times when you can travel or gain entry to events with digital tickets on your mobile phone. But if you have a top youth ticket, you must carry it with you in printed form, although you will receive the ticket as a PDF document after purchase.

This is exactly what killed a student (16) in Lower Austria on the way to Ebreichsdorf in the Baden district. When she got on the bus, she simply showed the driver the ticket on her cell phone. “That doesn’t apply,” she got the answer – and had to get out. The stunned 16-year-old had no choice but to let her parents pick her up.

Something similar happened days later with another student who also wanted to take the 200 bus. She also showed a digital ticket, but was then only allowed to ride on the bus driver’s orders after purchasing a single ticket.

The parents of the affected young people are obviously very frustrated, as they both have valid tickets. Just not on paper. “It is completely incomprehensible why it would be invalid in the form in which it was sent,” they complain.

“The situation is clear”
However, the Transport Association Eastern Region (VOR) defends the actions of the staff. Because the situation is clear. “If you buy it in the online shop, you will be told that the ticket is only valid if it is printed out,” emphasizes VOR spokesperson Georg Huemer.

This was decided for reasons of security against counterfeiting. “With a document saved on your mobile phone, you can’t tell if it’s an original, a copy or a screenshot,” says Huemer. Real mobile tickets, on the other hand, always have a so-called dynamic element that makes them recognizable as original at first glance.

However, Huemer admits that, especially for young passengers, less drastic measures than expulsion could have been taken: ‘In that case, a warning from the bus driver might have been sufficient to ensure that the student behaved according to the rules in the future. . .”