Frequently asked questions about tickets and the TicketShop

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).

Anyone wishing to travel beyond their validity area (refer to the  Overview map of the range of validity (PDF) with a Seniors ticket for Hesse needs a valid ticket. RMV tickets are generally valid from the last station in the transport network area till the borders of the transport network area (even if there is no station). Whether a ticket from the last station in the RMV area onwards is required for the respective journey however depends on the respective tariff of the neighbouring area. Please obtain information about this before departure.

The Seniors ticket for Hesse is available at every RMV outlet marked with the e-Ticket logo, at NVV, through transport company VGG in the VRN zone as well as online through the RMV TicketShop or subscription centre of Kassel transport company (KVG).

The order forms (Only in German) can be downloaded.

From price bracket 6, an RMV weekly adult pass pays for itself from just 3 return journeys. One accompanying person can also travel free of charge at evenings and weekends. There is a choice:

• Weekly ticket for adults
• Weekly ticket for pupils and apprentices

You are free to choose the first day of validity, and the pass will expire at the end of business (5:00) on the last day of validity

With an RMV monthly pass, you can travel more cheaply from the fourth week onwards than with individual weekly passes. Your month doesn't even have to start on the 1st. There is a choice:

• Monthly ticket for adults
• 9-o'clock monthly ticket for adults
• 65-plus monthly ticket
• Monthly ticket for pupils and apprentices

Monthly passes are valid from any calendar day and are valid until the same calendar day of the following month (inclusive) until the end of business. During this period, they entitle the holder to any number of journeys on all RMV services within the selected area of validity.

The RMV annual pass is the savings ticket for people who regularly travel by bus and train. It is valid around the clock, 365 days a year. With the annual pass, you save the price of 2 monthly passes. You also benefit from the "take-along" rule, which allows one adult and any number of children under the age of 15 to travel on your ticket every day from 19:00 and at weekends without time restrictions.

Annual passes are initially valid for one year from the first day of a selected calendar month and are available for all price brackets. Limitless travel with the subscription or cancel this at any time at the end of the month. Your subscription will automatically renew after 12 months unless you cancel it beforehand. The transferable annual pass is also available without a subscription and must be paid for in advance. Passengers aged 65 and over can select the Seniorenticket Hessen, which is available with or without a subscription.

Annual season tickets

A day pass is cheaper than two single tickets from the 2nd journey onwards.

Single tickets are only valid for one person for an immediate, one-off journey with any change in the direction of the destination (no round trips).

• The next possible connection must be used.
• Interruptions to the journey are not permitted.
• It is not possible to purchase tickets in advance.
• The ticket is no longer transferable once you have started your journey.
• Some cities have cheaper, short-distance tickets. You can also buy "multi-trip tickets" in advance in Wiesbaden and Mainz, which must be validated when used.

The Hessenticket allows up to five people to travel throughout Hesse on the day of validity.

Provide your personal details to the ticket inspector and you will receive a payment request for the "increased fare". Take this receipt and your personal travel pass to a service point operated by the transport company you travelled with within the time limit stated on the receipt. You will find the contact details here: Contact person on site. You can have the payment request cancelled here for a relatively small processing fee. Please note: This rule does not apply to transferable RMV travel passes.

Yes. You can return a valid annual pass at the end of the month. Weekly and monthly passes can also be returned before the expiry date.

 Information and rules for returning RMV tickets.

Once your order is complete, you will receive an e-mail. You will find your contracting party’s contact details in the top right-hand corner. Please contact them directly if you have any questions.

Advance booking period of 5 days:

•     if you are ordering from the RMV TicketShop for the first time and do not yet have a RheinMain eTicket. You will receive this chip card with the electronically stored ticket by post.
•     for orders of tickets in transitional fare zones (also sent by post)

Advance booking period of 2 days:

• for chip cards that are reused in the RMV TicketShop. To do this, register the chip card in advance on the meinRMV customer portal. You will receive the registration data from the contracting party/distributor where you received the chip card.

The calendar in the RMV TicketShop ("valid from") is pre-set to the first possible day of validity if you wish to be issued with an e-Ticket.

Just two days after your order, your ticket will be made available to you for transfer as an "e-Ticket" for your chip card.

If you were registered for RMVsmiles when purchasing tickets in the RMV TicketShop on rmv.de or mobile via RMVgo, but 7 to 10 days have elapsed and you haven't received any smiles in the RMV TicketShop, please contact us using the contact form. Please state your customer and contract or chip card number.

On rmv.de, go to "meinRMV" > "RMV MobileTicket" > "Settings" > "Change bank details". In RMVgo, after logging in, go to "My account" > "My payment methods" > "Open rmv.de".

You can access your monthly invoices under "meinRMV" > "RMV MobileTicket" > Purchase MobileTicket > Invoices once you have logged in at www.rmv.de. You will also be notified when new invoices are available.

In RMVgo, you can only issue individual receipts under "My tickets".

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.

Often the ticket must be shown while boarding the bus. There is a reader device with a digital display. An optical and an acoustic signal shows that the ticket is valid. 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. 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.

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.

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!

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.

The RMV prepaid discount can be applied to the RMV MobileTicket. If you pay for tickets on RMVgo using a prepaid balance of 40 euros, a discount of 20 per cent will be applied to your purchase.

Select your ticket in RMVgo using the connection search. If you want to buy a short-distance ticket, single ticket or single supplement, select the RMV prepaid discount in the payment method. You will then be shown the discounted price and your credit balance. By clicking on "Purchase ticket", the ticket price will be deducted from your RMV prepaid discount credit and you will receive the desired ticket.

Yes, you can have the RMV prepaid discount credit refunded using the RMVgo menu. To do this, go to "My account" > "RMV prepaid discount" > "Refund now" in RMVgo. The remaining credit will be refunded to the payment method stored in meinRMV.

Log in to RMVgo with your meinRMV customer account. There you will find the "RMV prepaid discount" item in the "My account" menu. Here you can top up your credit (credit card or SEPA direct debit) and view your current credit balance. If you top up your prepaid discount credit on the app, you will also be sent an invoice by e-mail.

You can always add 40 euros to your prepaid discount credit account for each top-up. You can pay in a maximum of 200 euros, i.e. 5 payment transactions of 40 euros each. For example, if you want to top up with 80 euros, you have to make 2 separate payments.

You can buy short-distance tickets, single tickets and the single supplement with a 20 per cent discount. All other tickets already include a discount. The RMV prepaid discount therefore does not apply to them.