BKK Budapesti Közlekedési Központ Reviews 32

The ticket vending machines were not working properly. We boarded the bus without a valid ticket, and when the inspector came to check us, we asked for help and explained the situation. The inspector was extremely rude and forced us to pay a fine of 12,000 HUF each, threatening that if we didn't pay immediately, we would have to show our passports and the fine would be much higher.
He was neither helpful nor empathetic; he was only interested in collecting the fine. He spoke like a robot. It is clear that the company's policy is designed to ensure tourists are penalized, especially when they claim it is our 'duty' to inform ourselves before boarding and that it was our 'choice' to do so.
After researching the company, I realized that inspectors receive a bonus for every fine they collect. I immediately understood the reason behind his attitude. Extremely rude. He treated us as if we shouldn't be in his country and it had a negative impact on our experience in the city.

I had a very unpleasant experience with a bus driver the Népliget to Nagysándor József route, bus 608 02/07/26 departing at 13:30. As a first-time passenger and a foreigner, I asked for help, but instead of assisting, the driver was rude, shouted at me, and behaved unprofessionally. This kind of attitude is unacceptable, especially toward passengers who are unfamiliar with the system.but thanks to the young women who had helped me the entire trip! I have been travelling many countries and took public transportation, and being a first timer I always asked the driver about tickets or payment and never had this kind of behaviour except this driver of 608 who behaved differently . He has a very bad behaviour.

On a positive note, I would like to commend the driver of bus number 679, passing Nagysándor József at 12:20 (02/8/26When I asked whether the bus was going to Népliget, he responded politely, smiled, and was very helpful. His behavior was respectful and welcoming.

App charges card while automatic extension of monthly subscription is turned off. Although you see this via the mail 3 days before the new subscription begins, there is no way to undo it and BKK simply says your fault and have a nice 2026. I noticed that the app was updated the day before activation new period and I expect that this set the option on. I have now attached a card that I can block preventing this from happening. But a very poor service from BKK. One star is way too good for them

They even charge my card when automatic subscription is turned off.

Sent them a mail but an answer can take up to 30 days. Enough to charge my card once again.

Worst public transport service I've ever used and horrible treatment by the inspectors. After half an hour trying to figure out why ticket I required, I eventually downloaded that app and used the journey planner. I purchased the one way ticket and when the inspector came along he told me I had the wrong ticket and gave me a fine. When asking what I had done wrong and what I should have got he refused to answer. A lady with her child nearby decided to help and spoke to him in the local language but he completely ignored her. I raised a request with the company for explanation and refund but they provided no assistance at all. Very unhappy and completely ruined my trip to Budapest

Boarding a Tram 56 I had just just completed purchasing online tickets and ready to scan.
Where I was accosted by This Ticket Inspector 6223
JEGYELLENÖR for not purchasing tickets.
Physically blocking me and repeating he was not here to help tourists, but ensure they conform he issues a HUF 24,000 fine. I requested he called the police where he refused and blocked my exit.
A total disgrace and representation of Budapest that otherwise was a decent city.
Stick to Uber or Bikes, Ticket Inspector 6223 was obviously on a side hustle. He needs to go on an extensive training and apologise for his unprofessional behaviour to tourists!!
There should be an official investigation by the Budapest Transport Authority, Budapest Mayor, BKK Tram Company and Budapest Tourist Board!
All tourists penalised should be reimbursed!! :(

I bought my ticket 5 minutes before boarding the tram and wanted to activate it inside. I asked the inspector how to do this – but she did not speak a single word of English. Using Google Translate, she told me that the activation must be done outside the tram, and then immediately issued me a penalty, even though I had already paid for my ticket.
Later I went to the BKK customer center, but the employee there also did not speak any English and did not help me at all.
I find this unfair and misleading. A passenger who has paid for their ticket should not be treated like a fare dodger. This practice feels more like a deliberate trap to generate penalties than a fair public transport system.

I had a very negative experience with a BKK ticket inspector at Kalvin tér M bus stop on [07/09/25] around 18:40. The inspector was physically aggressive (pushed me), verbally threatening, and even told me I should be “grateful to be in his country.” This behaviour was unprofessional, intimidating, and discriminatory.

As a visitor, I was shocked and left feeling unsafe. I hope BKK takes this seriously and ensures their staff treat all passengers with respect and professionalism.

Zero stars. Absolutely dreadful treatment, made to feel like criminals as we had purchased the tickets for the tram and didn’t know we had to validate them. The BKK staff made us get off the tram and were intimidating and aggressive towards us(myself and two friends all middle aged ladies). We had to pay a fine of approximately £25 each even when we had purchased the tickets. We were not trying to not pay we had a receipt for the tickets.

This is - by far - the worst & most corrupted public transport system in the world, full of scammers and people waiting to get cash from tourists because, apparently, they target foreigners to milk money from them because they live in a poor city. This thing alone ruined the whole Budapest experience for me.
No matter if you have subscriptions or tickets or whatever, they still find a way to abuse people and to get money.
When trams get crowded, you can barely enter them and there aren't many QR codes or validators on them (and sometimes it's impossible to get through it because of how crowded it is). The BKK app also sucks and it's full of errors. Sometimes it doesn't work. But the controllers don't care, they're not here to solve problems or to tell their colleagues to improve the things. They're here to get money because maybe BKK trained them to be like that or maybe it's because the salaries are so low in this jungle that wouldn't deserve to be called "country".
Why are they racist and why they target foreigners? They should kiss our boots because we bring money into this 3rd world place. Without us, their tourism would be worse than countries that are currently at war. Just saying...
Let's not forget about the fact that the whole fleet sucks. The trams are very old, same as the trains and the metros. Were these things fabricated in the year 1920? Buses aren't new either. Why aren't those running on either electricity or on hydrogen, just like in civilised countries? Oh, but I almost forgot: THIS IS NOT A CIVILISED COUNTRY!
Despite the fact that the buses have special bands on the road that are supposed to speed up the process, they are still very late and they don't respect the timetable.
And another thing: ME AND MY PARTNER WANT TO GET OUR MONEY BACK! GIVE US THE 12000 HUF + 12000 HUF + THE MONEY FROM THE 4+4 UNUSED TICKETS BACK! YOU ARE GREEDY PEOPLE, REAL SCAMMERS! SHAME ON YOU! Because of that, Budapest will be cut off from my list. Period.
At first I didn't know that what they did was unlawful, but now...after reading many reviews online...I am fully at peace because I know that this thing happened to other people as well. I thought that me and my partner were the only ones, but we aren't...unfortunately.
Me + Other people who went through the same situation want the BKK to apologise to us! Give us refunds and fire your corrupted employees.
Shame on you! I'm really disgusted.

This is - by far - the worst & most corrupted public transport system in the world, full of scammers and people waiting to get bribe from tourists because, apparently, they target foreigners to milk money from them because they live in a poor city. This thing alone ruined the whole Budapest experience for me.
No matter if you have subscriptions or tickets or whatever, they still find a way to abuse people and to get money.
When trams get crowded, you can barely enter them and there aren't many QR codes or validators on them (and sometimes it's impossible to get through it because of how crowded it is). The BKK app also sucks and it's full of errors. Sometimes it doesn't work. But the controllers don't care, they're not here to solve problems or to tell their colleagues to improve the things. They're here to get money because maybe BKK trained them to be like that or maybe it's because the salaries are so low in this jungle that wouldn't deserve to be called "country".
Why are they racist and why they target foreigners? They should kiss our boots because we bring money into this 3rd world place. Without us, their tourism would be worse than countries that are currently at war. Just saying...
Let's not forget about the fact that the whole fleet sucks. The trams are very old, same as the trains and the metros. Were these things fabricated in the year 1920? Buses aren't new either. Why aren't those running on either electricity or on hydrogen, just like in civilised countries? Oh, but I almost forgot: THIS IS NOT A CIVILISED COUNTRY!
Despite the fact that the buses have special bands on the road that are supposed to speed up the process, they are still very late and they don't respect the timetable.
And another thing: ME AND MY PARTNER WANT TO GET OUR MONEY BACK! GIVE US THE 12000 HUF + 12000 HUF + THE MONEY FROM THE 4+4 UNUSED TICKETS BACK! YOU ARE GREEDY PEOPLE, REAL SCAMMERS! SHAME ON YOU! Because of that, Budapest will be cut off from my list. Period.
At first I didn't know that what they did was unlawful, but now...after reading many reviews online...I am fully at peace because I know that this thing happened to other people as well. I thought that me and my partner were the only ones, but we aren't...unfortunately.
Me + Other people who went through the same situation want the BKK to apologise to us! Give us refunds and fire your corrupted employees.
Shame on you! I'm really disgusted.

We bought tickets in the App, but the stupid App did not let us validate the tickets when scanning the QR. It kept say 403 error because we were using Roaming LTE, not local WiFi network. Three inspectors hunted us down just like we were criminals. They wanted their money regardless of our efforts to explain the situation. We were forced to pay 62 euros on site just like a robbery.

After the incident, we tried to contact BKK but their customer service did not want to cooperate despite having my credit card number. They did not trace back to the incident on that day.

This says a lot about this country, the authorities and your people. Thanks for giving us a pricey lesson about how to treat your country in the future.

No staff around, only faulty machines also a system that does not make sense. No failsafe barriers where you can not go wrong, it is an open system and if you do not know how it works (most tourists will not know) they purposely target you. They will not respond to emails or complaints. They are mainly out to get tourists, they will target you if you have a suitcase. Hungary is very anti-tourist and Bkk are doing a great job with that. Their inspectors do not speak English and are very rude in attitude, unfortunately we had to stay one night in the city and could not wait to leave, minus our $183 fine yes there were 6 of us. I was not prepared to spend one more cent in this God forsaken place.

Me and my girlfriend just arrived to Budapest, completely tired after a 14 hour trip and ready to go to our hotel.

When we entered the tram, we were with the expectation that you could buy tickets on the tram (like any other transport system in Europe)

That quite reasonable and normal expectation was quickly disillusioned when two inspectors, detained us before the tram doors were even closed and had a chance to grasp the profound and uncomfortable wierd situation that it was.

They acted like we were two loose criminals, and could not at all contemplate the fact, that we were two tourists ready to discover the city, and on our Way to buy a ticket with the wierdly enough Non-excisting driver.

How can two represents of the city be so utterly disrespectful and unempathic to a completely normal situation with two just arrived tourists??

THIS is absurd and absolutely unacceptable!!
We ended up with a fine and a horrible view of the BKK and its personnel.

My daughter and her friend just arrived to Hungary 3 hours ago. They bought 2 bus tickets and validated them (you have to insert the ticket into a slot of a box).
2 minutes later they were checked by the ticket controller and turned out that one of the ticket wasn't validated despite it was pushed in to the box. She was find €30 on the spot. She explained that's their firs time to use this system and genuinely didn't know that the ticket wasn't validated. It is almost impossible to tell the difference between the 2 tickets.
Insensitive, rude and unjust conductors!
They knew that the girls were tourists. It happened 2 minutes from the airport on the airport bus.

We took a bus from airport for 2200 HUF each. It should be 4400 HUF in total because we were 2 people. 3 days later (while I am no longer in Budapest) they charged me 8800 HUF from my creditcard. It is a total scam and I recommend everybody to use something else. Scammers!!!

Had ticket on app...validated on train door..ticket inspector fined us both said ticket not valid...outside city centre...but scan on bus or train says ticket good...do not use app...buy tickets from the machine...they scam ukrainians and I as an Irish tourist

This is an organised scam train. They deliberate it make it complicated and then fine 10x to the consumer
Such a sad way

nice vehicles, but the qr code reading process is a joke. full of customers all the day and night, but cannot do nothing with stinky rude freeloader drugabuser homelesses. i think, budapest has the best public transport network, but they should inform the people about suspensions and repairs and delays.

The biggest bull***it i have ever seen. The system is set up to fine people no matter what. They will always find something that is wrong with your travel. No matter if you have ticket or not. And their information system is equal to nothing...AVOID at all cost....idiotic system...be aware if you travel to Budapest!!!!