eTicket RheinMain - Your tool for purchasing tickets
The eTicket RheinMain is the RMV’s Mobility Ticket. Tickets are stored on it electronically. The eTicket RheinMain can be used again and again to purchase tickets.
Furthermore, the eTicket RheinMain can also be used to access car sharing vehicles, pedelecs, electric cars, etc.
The following tickets are issued via eTicket RheinMain:
- RMV Annual season tickets: Named annual season ticket, Transferable annual season ticket, Hesse senior citizen ticket, Annual DB surcharge for using IC/EC trains
- Supplementary season tickets for travelling in First Class
- Schülerticket Hessen for school students and apprentices
- CleverCard for school students and apprentices
- RMV Monthly ticket for adults: Monthly ticket for adults, 9.00 monthly ticket for adults, 65-plus monthly ticket
- RMV Weekly ticket for adults
- Monthly ticket charged at training rate
- Weekly ticket charged at training rate
Exception: tickets for cross-network fare zones will still be issued in paper form.
You can get the smartcard at the eTicket RheinMain sales offices.
Electronic tickets for the eTicket RheinMain are available at the eTicket RheinMain sales offices. These are the RMV sales offices with the light blue eTicket logo and the Deutsche Bahn travel centres.
Weekly and monthly tickets for adults are also transferred to your smartcard at ticket machines bearing the eTicket logo. Be sure to always have your eTicket RheinMain with you to do so. eTicket-compatible RMV ticket machines can be found at the stations and rail stops for regional traffic.
To purchase, place the smartcard on the area marked with the (((e logo and purchase your ticket as usual. The new ticket will then be added to your eTicket RheinMain within seconds.
Currently, Verkehrsgesellschaft Frankfurt (VGF) ticket machines in Frankfurt are also being upgraded, to enable purchasing electronic weekly or monthly tickets for adults.
All subscribed RMV annual tickets and within the transport district can also be booked online via RMV TicketShop. There you can also buy weekly and monthly tickets for adults (except for cross-network fares) to store on your eTicket smartcard.
If your smartcard is not registered in your name, you can only have it replaced at the sales office by showing the purchase receipt you received when your smartcard was first issued. If you did not receive a purchase receipt for the smartcard or if you disposed of it, please contact the sales office that issued it prior to possible replacement, to obtain it again (the receipt for a ticket purchase is not accepted!).
If you do not yet have an eTicket RheinMain and are not already an annual ticket or CleverCard subscriber, you will receive the eTicket when purchasing one of the tickets listed at the eTicket RheinMain sales offices.
Changes to the contents of your ticket and new tickets are provided electronically to be saved to your eTicket RheinMain. You can change electronic tickets at the RMV sales offices (for instance also using an order form) and reorder them there or at the RMV-TicketShop. When the order has been placed and processed, your transportation company will inform you as of which date you can update your eTicket RheinMain. There are three ways of transmitting changed or new tickets to your eTicket RheinMain:
All RMV ticket machines in the RMV transport district have an eTicket read/write device, via which the electronic tickets are transmitted to the smartcard. There, the eTicket RheinMain can also be read or written with the electronically stored ticket for pick-up.
To do so, place the smartcard on the area marked with the (((e logo. Within a matter of seconds, the new ticket will then be “written” on your eTicket RheinMain, i.e. added and stored on the chip.
These machines can be found at every station with connections to suburban trains or DB regional trains.
© RMV
The graphic shows an RMV ticket machine with explanations.
It is mint-coloured with a blue vertical strip in the middle, the RMV logo is displayed in the upper part. Above this is a light mount containing a display with dynamic customer information (subject to location). Below the RMV logo, “Fahrkarten” is written in large font.
On the left at centre height is the touch display, at the bottom of the screen there is the foreign language selection bar (D, GB, F, I, E, TR). The dispenser tray (paper tickets, coins and receipts) is located below the screen.
In the central, vertical blue strip, at the very top, level with the edge of the screen, is the coin slot for cent coins in denominations of 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents as well as for one and two euro coins. Below this is the contact surface (reader) for the eTicket RheinMain.
On the right-hand side, level with the writing “Fahrkarten”, there is a field which contains a contact person and a telephone number in the case of a technical malfunction. Below this is the terminal for cashless payment transactions with girocard, VisaCard or MasterCard.
It contains a keypad at the top, a contact surface for contactless card payments underneath and a card reader at the bottom into which cards can be inserted.
There are two slots located below the payment terminal. The upper slot is used for cash payments and accepts banknotes in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 euros; the lower slot is the banknote dispenser.
During opening hours, you can have the changes stored in your name or the new ticket written on your smartcard at the eTicket RheinMain sales offices.
Please note that you can only obtain in-house customer services for the eTicket RheinMain at the VGF (Frankfurt), ESWE (Wiesbaden) and HEAG mobilo (Darmstadt).
Changes to the contents of a ticket or a new ticket can also be transmitted to the smartcard via the RMV app on an NFC-enabled Android smartphone. Due to different technical requirements, this is not yet possible on all smartphones - but give it a try!
This is how it works:
- Open the RMV app and click "eTicket RheinMain" in the menu.
- Hold your smartcard against the rear of the smartphone - that is where the NFC interface is located. It takes approximately 20 seconds until the new ticket is loaded onto the smartcard. Do not remove the smartcard from the device during this process.
- Please make sure that the ticket was transmitted by clicking on the ticket marked “new” on your smartphone’s user interface.
- That´s it! The new ticket is now on the smartcard and you can use it as usual.
A tip: If you are in a WLAN network of a company, it can so happen that this action cannot be carried out because of settings in the company's own Firewall. Then please try it again through your own "mobile data network".
Update the eTicket RheinMain with an NFC-enabled smartphone via RMV app refresh
© RMV - Markus Hammrich
Your smartcard holds the electronic information necessary for you to travel by RMV bus and rail – meaning your ticket with the route and validity period for transferable tickets along with the name, date of birth and gender for most individual tickets. If you would like to see for yourself what is stored on your eTicket RheinMain, there are several ways of doing this.
All RMV ticket machines in the RMV transport district have an eTicket read/write device, via which the eTicket an be read.
To do so, place the smartcard on the area marked with the (((e logo. The contents on your eTicket RheinMain are quickly read and are then shown to you on the screen.
These machines can be found at every station with connections to suburban trains or DB regional trains.
© RMV
The graphic shows an RMV ticket machine with explanations.
It is mint-coloured with a blue vertical strip in the middle, the RMV logo is displayed in the upper part. Above this is a light mount containing a display with dynamic customer information (subject to location). Below the RMV logo, “Fahrkarten” is written in large font.
On the left at centre height is the touch display, at the bottom of the screen there is the foreign language selection bar (D, GB, F, I, E, TR). The dispenser tray (paper tickets, coins and receipts) is located below the screen.
In the central, vertical blue strip, at the very top, level with the edge of the screen, is the coin slot for cent coins in denominations of 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents as well as for one and two euro coins. Below this is the contact surface (reader) for the eTicket RheinMain.
On the right-hand side, level with the writing “Fahrkarten”, there is a field which contains a contact person and a telephone number in the case of a technical malfunction. Below this is the terminal for cashless payment transactions with girocard, VisaCard or MasterCard.
It contains a keypad at the top, a contact surface for contactless card payments underneath and a card reader at the bottom into which cards can be inserted.
There are two slots located below the payment terminal. The upper slot is used for cash payments and accepts banknotes in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 euros; the lower slot is the banknote dispenser.
During opening hours, you can have the stored electronic ticket read from your smartcard at the eTicket RheinMain sales offices.
Please note: VGF (Frankfurt), ESWE (Wiesbaden) or HEAG mobilo (Darmstadt) each provide their own services. Nevertheless, you can have your electronic ticket read out at their respective sales offices.
The eTicket RheinMain can also be read via the RMV app on an NFC-enabled Android smartphone. Due to different technical requirements, this is not yet possible on all smartphone.
This is how it works:
- Open the RMV app and click "More" to access "eTicket RheinMain".
- Hold your smartcard against the rear of the smartphone - that is where the NFC interface is located. The contents on your eTicket RheinMain are quickly read and are then shown to you on the screen.
Registration makes replacement easier, in the event you ever lose your eTicket RheinMain. For example, a purchase receipt is not required when ordering a replacement. However, registration is not required to use the ticket!
You can register the eTicket RheinMain right at the sales office or online. When purchasing products such as annual tickets (without a subscription) or monthly tickets, the choice is yours: The employees will gladly register your smartcard to your name in the system, so it can be replaced quickly without a purchase receipt should you ever lose it. When purchasing individual annual subscriptions and CleverCards, the eTicket RheinMain is automatically registered to your name in the system.
Visit "meinRMV" to register your mobility ticket. To do so, first follow the simple registration steps at "meinRMV". You will receive the registration data (smartcard number and password) from the contracting partner together with your smartcard. In your "meinRMV" account, go to "Managing My Chip Cards" to access the following:
- General information concerning the technical validity of your smartcard
- Information about the smartcard user (this data can be edited online)
- Order a replacement smartcard (including blocking) if your card is lost or broken
- View all (active) tickets stored on your smartcard, e.g. weekly and monthly tickets
- View all (active) subscribed annual season tickets, edit the contractual data for those tickets (e.g. changing the adress or credit card details), and download the invoices for all subscribed tickets valid in the last 13 months
- Customers of a CleverCard/CleverCard kreisweit can use all services except editing stored data.
- View the last ten expired (no longer valid) tickets stored on your smartcard
- Cancel the registration of your smartcard
Please note: The online manager at meinRMV cannot be used for VGF (Frankfurt), ESWE (Wiesbaden) and HEAG mobilo (Darmstadt) smartcards at this time.
eTicket: Frequently asked questions
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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.
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Data privacy for the eTicket RheinMain
The RMV has decided upon the Standard (((eTicket Deutschland for the conversion of the season ticket to the eTicket RheinMain. The benefits are obvious: This nation-wide standard enables the use of Chip cards for the first time in various networks. It is considered especially safe from misuse, manipulations or forgeries and it satisfies the high German data protection requirements. This standard has been developed in close cooperation with the Conference of the data protection commissioners of the federal government and the states and has been coordinated with the Commissioner for Data Protection of Hesse. The special focus in this was on data protection, data economy and consumer protection. Movement profiles should not and are not created with the eTicket RheinMain. First and foremost, the passengers should have the highest possible data transparency and should be able to understand what happens with their data. For this, every holder of an eTicket can see his/her data stored in the RMV mobility centres – and can even have transaction data deleted.
There are three separate areas on the memory chip: Just like on a paper ticket, specific information is saved, which identifies the holder of the eTicket (personal data) and which season ticket has been acquired (ticket data). As a service function in the sense of consumer protection, the last ten transactions with the Chip card are saved in a kind of log book (usage data). These are recorded as digital client voucher for complaints, for example, in order to submit proof when passengers have complaints. These control entries are comparable with machine printouts and endorser stamps in case of paper tickets. At the same time, they help in personal checking of individual eTickets, so that a stranger cannot use it. The following applies in principle: The eTicket RheinMain is as good as money and should therefore be kept safe and protected like an EC or credit card.
In case of individual tickets, name, gender and date of birth of the passenger are saved on the Chip card, so that the ticket holder can be identified during a check. Here, the name is not saved in clear text; rather, it is 'masked' with letters, numbers and special characters, that is, it is encrypted. Thus, the name can be matched, for example, with the help of the ID card, but cannot be read (Example: Max Mustermann, date of birth 01.03.2001, male, M1x@M8n 03/2001 M). Other data like a passport photo has been deliberately waived for the purpose of data economy. Therefore, the following is applicable for season ticket holders: Always carry the personal ID or another photo ID along with the eTicket. As regards passengers, who buy only transferable season ticket products, no personal data is saved on the Chip cards.
Naturally, the season ticket that is acquired is also saved, that is the ticket type, for which tariff zones and for how long it is valid. During each ticket check, it is not just checked whether the travel permission is valid, but also whether the transferred data record is free of manipulations.
Furthermore, the Chip card saves specific usage data in a log book: Always, when the eTicket is held at a checking device (so-called transactions) – for example in the bus or during a ticket check. Thereby, all journeys are not necessarily completely recorded, if for example in city train and metro journeys the eTicket did not come in contact with a checking device. Only the ten most recent transactions are saved. For the purpose of data economy, the old entries are overwritten one after the other from the eleventh entry. This usage data includes time, place and type of the transaction, the terminal number, the ticket/product number, the line and trip number. The checking device sends the data record to the eTicket background system of the RMV and there it is checked whether there also exists a sales data record for the checked eTicket RheinMain. That helps in verifying misuse like manipulations, duplicates or double registrations with one Chip card. This checking data is only saved on the eTicket of the passenger. On the RMV servers, this data record is again immediately deleted after the checking analysis.
The above-mentioned personal data and the ticket data is required to verify the travel permission of the eTicket user, whether the ticket is actually valid for this journey. At the same time, it is also checked whether the Chip card is free of manipulations. The log book entries help the passengers in carrying out individual checks. Afterwards, the passenger himself can always check how his eTicket was used. Thus, the highest possible data transparency exists in the sense of consumer protection. If the customer desires, the log book entries at an outlet can be deleted.
The ten log book entries are only saved on the Chip card. The network-wide background system, to which for example the control transaction data record is sent, saves the last data record only for checking analysis. It is automatically deleted afterwards. There is no central server, which saves the entries generated by the passengers for longer time. Employees of the RMV or the transport company have the facility to see the last ten transactions only in the RMV mobility centres, when the passenger provides his Chip card. No worry about movement profiles: On one hand, the creation is legally prohibited. On the other hand: The few, select log book entries (for example in the bus or during a ticket check and of those, maximum ten), are not sufficient to create a movement profile. A chance reading of a strange ticket is also not possible. The data is exchanged via NFC (Near Field Communication). For this purpose, the transmitter and receiver must be kept a few centimetres close on top of each other. If the eTicket is in a wallet and this in turn is in a jacket or a trouser pocket, then even the wilful reading of a strange ticket in passing is more than improbable. Basically, the eTicket must be protected just like a bank or credit card from unauthorised access by an unauthorised person.