Starting today, you can buy tickets for Stockholm’s buses with an SMS text messsage.

The innovation comes at the same time that the price of a ticket bought on a bus is doubling, to about 6 dollars. It’s also the first step towards ripping apart the one zone system introduced by the former center-left majority on the Stockholm County Council.

The reform abolished zones, so you could travel across the entire region for less than 3 dollars, for a period of just over one hour. The change had two unfortunate side-effects. The irritating one was that many people stopped buying monthly cards and started buying tickets then they boarded buses. Because the cost a single ticket was only slightly less than buying tickets ahead of a time in a booklet, people stopped buying the booklets too.

Which meant that buses suddenly were vastly delayed, as instead of flashing a card, or presenting a prepaid ticket for stamping, passengers and drivers went through the lengthy process of paying and getting change. Thirty seconds instead of 5, multiplied by dozens of passengers, greatly delayed buses.
But the really unfortunate development was that robberies of drivers increased significantly, which led to drivers protesting by letting people ride for free.

The new right wing council majority is abolishing the single zone system from April 1, and by doubling the price of buying tickets today makes the prepaid booklets much more attractive. But in order to keep their promise to abolish the purchase of tickets when boarding completely, they have had to find the SMS solution.

Initially only two wireless service providers will offer the service, Telia/HaleBop and Comqiv/Tele2. Stockholm Transport says other operators will join the system later.

To buy tickets, before boarding the bus, passengers have to send a text message to the number 72150, with either the letter “H” for the 26 kronor full fare or “R” for the 16 kronor reduced fare for children and pensioners. These tickets are slightly more expensive than those sold in booklets, and that doesn’t include SMS charges.

When the passenger enters the bus they have to show the SMS message on their phone to the driver. There are supposed to be numbers there that confirm the ticket purchase has been made and is geniune.