Frequently asked questions

RMV season tickets are saved electronically on the eTicket RheinMain. So, the eTicket can be repeatedly used for purchasing tickets. Even if your eTicket is "empty", that is no ticket is saved at present, retain the eTicket RheinMain for the next purchase of the season ticket. It must be exchanged for a new one after 5 years at the most.

As done so far the ticket must be shown while boarding the bus in many of the bus lines. However, the eTicket RheinMain is not checked by the driving staff any more, but a reader device with a digital display. The data exchange between the installed Chip and the reader takes place by magnetic waves. An optical and an acoustic signal shows that the ticket is valid, because all the relevant ticket information is saved on the Chip. Then "OK", a green light or a green check mark appears on the display.

No fixed inspection devices are installed in the rail vehicles. Here, the ticket checkers of the transport company continue to check whether a passenger has a valid ticket. The buses also continue to have inspectors, mainly where there are no inspection devices (for example in some urban transport). The inspectors carry readers for the eTicket RheinMain.

New RMV season tickets - that is weekly, monthly or annual 
tickets - can be saved again and again on the eTicket RheinMain. You can buy your new ticket in any outlet marked with the blue eTicket logo, online in the RMV-TicketShop or at a RMV ticket machine. Important: Always carry your Chip card, because this is the carrier for your ticket.

Lost or no longer verifiable Chip cards with valid travel permission are replaced against payment of 10.00 Euro. If the Chip card is evidently defective, there shall be no cost for the replacement card.

If you are registered for "meinRMV" with your eTicket RheinMain, you can block the Chip card directly online and shall get a replacement Chip card within a few days by post, which is an electronic copy of your original eTicket RheinMain. If this needs to be faster, you may be issued the replacement Chip card directly at the outlet as well.

If you have not registered your Chip card, you will get a replacement at the outlet only by presenting the receipt which you received when your Chip card was first issued to you. Your lost eTicket RheinMain is blocked. All the tickets saved on it are replaced - the transferable ones also.

If you also make use of additional offers with the eTicket RheinMain, you must inform the respective dealer the new Chip card number. Similarly, for the replacement card, you will get new registration data for managing the Chip card at meinRMV.

Customers, who have acquired their eTicket RheinMain at VGF (Frankfurt), ESWE (Wiesbaden) and HEAG mobilo (Darmstadt), please ask your respective sales partner, which services are available for you.

1. Ticket data The Chip card saves the acquired season ticket, that is, what is the ticket type, for which tariff zone it is applicable and for how long. In all, up to eight current tickets and tickets expired recently can be saved. For the purpose of data economy, the old entries are overwritten one after the other from the ninth entry onwards.

2. Personal data All personal data is only used for purposes that help in smooth functioning of the eTicket-RheinMain process. So, in case of personal tariff products, like the personal annual ticket or the student ticket Hesse, the name of the holder in masked form as well as the date of birth and the gender are saved in the Chip of the eTicket RheinMain. Saving in masked form means that only the first letter of the first name and the last name are saved in clear text. In case of all transferable tariff products, only the data of the ticket is saved in the Chip but no personal data is saved.

3. Transaction data for reasons of transparency, the last 10 transactions (checking processes and ticket purchases) are saved on the Chip card. The eTicket RheinMain offers highest security to its users with respect to data protection.

Processing of personal data occurs in compliance with the applicable Data Protection Act of the State of Hesse (HDSG) and the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG). The data protection supervisory authorities have also been involved right at the time of developing the procedure. All data protection regulation requirements like transparency, data economy and deletion options are fulfilled. And you can be very sure: Forming personal movement profiles is excluded!

Tickets issued on the eTicket RheinMain can be returned or cancelled on the directly on site or in writing by post to the contractual partner. The ticket on the Chip card is blocked at the desired end of contract or from the arrival of the cancellation letter (post mark matches the last day of use) and is not authorised for travel any more.

The Chip card itself must not be returned - it can be used again when you buy new tickets.

Other provisions related to the end of the contractual relationship can be found in the tariff provisions in clause 3.2.3 and in the special conditions of the respective ticket offer.

Adolescents up to and including 17 years of age with a place of residence in Hesse simply need to submit proof of their age and place of residence.

A parent or a legal guardian must sign the order form. If your place of residence is outside Hesse, a certificate from your school or training company in Hesse is necessary.

Young adults from 18 years onwards can have their school or training company sign the proof directly on the order form.

The claim for cost reimbursement is in accordance with the Hessian School Law (§ 161, paragraph 2 of HSchG). This applies for students travelling more than 2 km to primary school or more than 3 km to secondary school as well as for students with an exceptionally dangerous travel route. For more information please ask at Your local education authority.

If your Schülerticket Hessen is reimbursed, it is nonetheless valid in the entire state of Hesse.

The ticket can be ordered from any point of sale or also online in the RMV-TicketShop. The order form can also be downloaded from this website: Bestellscheine (only in German).

If you want to travel beyond the validity zone of the Schülerticket Hessen (see Overview map (PDF)), you need to buy an onward travel ticket from the last stop in the validity zone.

The Schülerticket Hessen is valid in all buses, suburban trains, underground trains and regional trains in Hesse and in Mainz. Night bus and fast bus lines can also be used.

To make changing to traffic associations in other federal states easier, major travel hubs outside of Hesse can be reached with the Schülerticket Hessen.

The Schülerticket Hessen is valid for travel to the following destinations beyond the state border of Hesse - see also the Overview map of the validity area of the Schülerticket Hessen (PDF).

Persons who live in Hesse but attend school or undergo training in other federal states can use the Schülerticket Hessen up to the state border of Hesse or up to transfer stations to other transport associations.

For all persons who have their school or training place in Hesse and live in the neighbouring federal state, the Schülerticket Hessen is valid from the Hessian state border or from the transfer stations.

More details can be found in the Overview map of validity area of the Schülerticket Hessen (PDF) (only available in German).

The Schülerticket Hessen is valid from the first day of any calendar month and thereafter for entire 12 successive months.

If the student ticket is bought as a subscription, the validity is automatically renewed by 12 additional months until the 18th birthday.

The Seniors ticket for Hesse is a personal annual ticket for all senior citizens above the age of 65 years. It is valid throughout Hesse and Mainz and is offered in two variants. The Seniors ticket for Hesse costs 365 euros and entitles you to travel by all means of local transport in Hesse on weekdays from 9.00 hours. On weekends and holidays as well in the Hessentag week, it is valid even before 9.00 hours. The Seniors Comfort ticket for Hesse at the price of 625 euros is valid for the whole day on weekdays. It entitles you to travel in 1st class, from 19.00 hours to 5.00 hours daily as well as for the whole day on weekends and holidays, wherein you can take along one adult and any number of children below the age of 15 years.

The offer is valid for everyone who is at least 65 years old.

The Seniors ticket for Hesse is valid for all buses, suburban trains (S-Bahn), trams, underground trains (U-Bahn), RegioTrams and regional trains in Hesse and Mainz. It can also be used for night buses and express bus lines.

In order to make the switch to transport associations in other German Federal Land easier, important junctions outside Hesse can also be used using the Seniors ticket for Hesse. Where beyond the state borders the Seniors ticket for Hesse is still valid can be seen from the Overview map of the range of validity (PDF) or from the following list:

• at the borders of NVV (North Hesse transport association) services up to
  • Warburg (North Rhine-Westphalia) on routes R17, RE11, 120, 140, W3 and W4
  • Hann. Münden (Lower Saxony) along with the Bonaforth, Hedemünden, Laubach and Oberode quarters as well as in the Staufenberg municipality (Lower Saxony)
  • Gerstungen (Thuringia) on routes R6 and 260
• at the borders of RMV
  • on the routes RB 29 and RB 90 up to "Diez Ost" station in Diez (Rhineland-Palatinate)
  • up to “Niederlaasphe” station in Bad Laasphe (North Rhine-Westphalia)
  • on route 77 to Geisa (Thuringia)
  • on routes 203, 204 and 275 in the Reckenroth municipality
  • on route 191 in the Sauerthal municipality
  • on route LM-33 in the Kaltenholzhausen municipality
  • in the transition tariff zones between VRN and RMV up to
    • Hohensachsen and Lützelsachsen in Weinheim
    • the city of Eberbach
    • centre of Worms (VRN zone 43) in Rhineland-Palatinate
  • as well as in Mainz (tariff zone 6500)

In principle, yes. Different people can be entered as the payer and the user in the order form. However, in each case, the proof of age must be provided for the user.

The Seniors ticket for Hesse is a personal annual ticket for all senior citizens above the age of 65 years. It is valid throughout Hesse and Mainz and is offered in two variants. The Seniors ticket for Hesse costs 365 euros and entitles you to travel by all means of local transport in Hesse on weekdays from 9.00 hours. On weekends and holidays as well in the Hessentag week, it is valid even before 9.00 hours. The Seniors Comfort ticket for Hesse is also valid for the whole day on weekdays. It entitles you to travel in 1st class, from 19.00 hours to 5.00 hours daily as well as for the whole day on weekends and holidays, wherein you can take along one adult and any number of children below the age of 15 years.

Basically, hailed shared taxis and dial-a-bus services are part of the means of transport in the transport network area and can thus be used without any extra charge using the Senior citizen ticket for Hesse. However, some companies levy extra charges for enhanced comfort (such as getting a ride until the front door). If extra charges are levied for hailed shared taxis, these shall need to be paid even for journeys with the Senior citizen ticket for Hesse.

With the Senior citizen comfort ticket for Hesse, you need not pay extra charges for the airliner.

No, the cheaper tickets to Frankfurt are applicable only to the Frankfurt “district fare zones” (5001-5010, 5012 und 5059), which are close to the start location or the start tariff zone. If you would like your ticket to be valid in the entire city area including the airport, please inform the sales staff about the same or enter the destination no. "5000" into the vending machine. Due to the bigger territorial validity, the ticket price will consequently increase, however.

No, the journeys to the airport are not affected by these benefits. An exception is the journey between Schwanheim and the airport – now city price level 3, Frankfurt.

The new price levels apply to journeys between the following cities or municipalities in the surrounding areas and Frankfurt, mostly still differentiated according to individual suburbs:

• in the Hochtaunus district: Bad Homburg, Oberursel, Schmitten, Steinbach
• in the Main-Kinzig district: Hanau, Maintal
• in the Main-Taunus district: Bad Soden, Eschborn, Hattersheim, Kriftel, Liederbach, Schwalbach, Sulzbach
• in the city/district of Offenbach: Mühlheim, Neu-Isenburg, Offenbach; in addition, for routes outside Hanau: Seligenstadt, Hainburg and Mainhausen
• in the Wetteraus district: Bad Vilbel

You can see exactly which suburbs are affected in the linked table (PDF) and in the schematic overview (PDF).

The stop index Frankfurt can be found here.

If you would like to travel to Frankfurt from one of the relevant surrounding municipalities, enter fare zone number 5000 for the destination number selection in the vending machine. If you would like to travel to a relevant bordering surrounding municipality from the outskirts of Frankfurt, you will automatically receive a ticket from the vending machine at the discounted price level.

The biggest part of the city area (6501) is accessible at the reduced fare. This also applies to Delkenheim, provided that the destination can be reached en route Wiesbaden. Journeys via Wallau and Hochheim am Main will be carried out at the previous price.

The price level 30 will be applicable between Wiesbaden and the following communes / suburbs.

• Eltville
• Kiedrich
• Niedernhausen
• Schlangenbad
• Taunusstein

The stop index for Wiesbaden can be found here.

Yes, even cities and municipalities such as Hanau or Schmitten will profit from journeys to certain fare zones in Frankfurt. For instance, the discounted journeys here shall take place at the price level 40 instead of the previous price level 5 (price saving of 20%). Please note: The discounted price level 30 and 40 can always only be used to travel across sub-areas of Frankfurt and not the entire city area of Frankfurt.