Use of Public Transportation
More information on the use of public transport
Tickets can be purchased from vending machines in the train stations, or from the drivers of buses. A single trip ticket is valid for three hours and only one-way. Tickets are validated by inserting them into the blue stamp machines in train stations, buses and trams. Many kinds of ticket are available, but these are our suggestions (the same ticket is valid for trains, buses and trams):
Streifenkarte (stripe ticket): a convenient and cheap way is to buy a Streifenkarte (10 stripes, 11 Euro) instead of a single trip ticket, and to cancel the appropriate number of stripes depending on the route. For up to two U- or S-Bahn stations you should cancel one stripe (for example from Garching to Garching-Forschungszentrum). The public transportation area is divided in four main rings around the Munich city center. Every two stripes allow a one-way trip inside one main ring.
Tageskarte (day ticket): valid for the whole day. This ticket comes in four flavours: "Innenraum", 5 Euro (central zone covering most of Munich city); "München XXL", 6.70 Euro (Munich city plus the first external ring zone - includes Garching and the research centre, but not the airport); "Aussenraum", 5 Euro (the 3 outer ring zones, including Garching, the research centre, and the airport, but not the central Munich city zone); and "Gesamtnetz", 10 Euro (the entire network including the airport and Munich city).