It’s nearly yearly pass time once again

Next month thousands of Prague residents, myself included, will be paying in advance for a year’s travel on the city’s very reliable, easy-to-navigate integrated public transport network.

Photo: Kristýna Maková

Annual tramvajenky (passes) have been around in Prague for over a century. In fact the first were sold in 1899, according to an article in the newspaper Mladá fronta Dnes a few days ago.

The earliest tickets were good for both the tram and a long-disappeared means of transport called the koňka, short for koněspřežná dráha. It was an equine-powered open-sided tram known in English as a horsecar.

However, in the beginning the yearly travel passes – which first went on sale on November 20, 1898 – were none too popular, and only 14 were sold.

The low interest was no doubt partly linked to their novelty, but may also have been related to the price. The passes cost 120 crowns, which was 600 times the price of the most expensive single ticket of the day, wrote Mladá fronta.

In 2010 an annual tramvajenka is only 180 times more expensive than the priciest ticket for an individual journey. To my mind CZK 4750 crowns is a reasonable price to pay for a whole year’s travel on as good a transport network as I’ve seen. It works out at around CZK 90 a week, which is USD 5 or under EUR 4.

I myself walk to work every day and some days don’t take public transport at all. But at that price a week, I’d prefer to pay for an annual ticket and not have the hassle of having to buy individual tickets and then remember to stamp them.

When I first bought one about five years ago (which felt like some kind of small statement that I was here to stay) the yearly pass came in the form of four individual paper tickets, which the passenger would have to change every three months in a little wallet that also held a plastic ID card.

Since 2008 anyone wishing to pay in advance for a year’s travel is required to get an Opencard, a fact that forced me for once in my life to become an early adopter. From just last weekend Praguers also need the card to buy monthly and three-monthly tickets.

The red, credit card-sized Opencard – also used for libraries and other municipal services – includes a chip with information about the bearer, a fact which has led some to oppose the system on civil liberties grounds.

The name Opencard is inane, too. And why is it in English? In any case, though it is convenient in some ways there are a lot of people currently carrying one who would probably be glad to see it eventually go the same way as the horsecar.