Our current terms of transportation and tariff provisions provide you with all the basic facts relating to the GVH – from the scope of validity of tickets to the proper behaviour in buses and railway and to the prices of the individual tariff products.
Download PDF tariff provisions (available in german language only)
Excerpts from the terms of transportation and tariff provisions
Below are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about travelling means of transport of the GVH partners. We answer questions about the Deutschland ticket here.
Single tickets and Day tickets must be validated before travelling. If there is no possibility for ticket validation at the stop, the ticket must be validated at the start of the journey inside the vehicle (city tram and buses of ÜSTRA and regiobus). On local trains, a validation is not possible. As far as the tickets was purchased validated already (for example out of the ÜSTRA vending machines), it is valid for immediate travel. Tickets with a preselected period of validity (for example online tickets or Monthly and Annual passes) don’t need to be validated.
If you are caught without a valid ticket within the GVH area, you will be obliged to pay increased transport charges.
Among others, at the following conditions, the company can demand an increased charge amounting to 60,00 Euro, the passenger needs to pay:
- The passenger travels without a valid ticket for himself or for transported pets or bikes, as far as this is necessary. Please note the remark regarding the entrainment regulation of persons, bicycles and animals.
- Despite the purchase of a valid ticket, it cannot be presented during ticket inspection.
- The ticket was not properly validated.
- Passenger fails to present the ticket upon request.
- A bike is transported during times when this is not permitted.
Further, please note that in case of personal passes it is required to present a valid official photo identity document or a customer card to the inspection personnel.
The increased transport charge does not entitle to proceed the journey. The amount is reduced to 7,00 Euro, if you can present a valid, not transferable Monthly or Annual pass within 14 days from determination date at the administrative department of the company.
A VAT of 7 % is included already in all GVH prices according to §12, para. 2, no. 10 Value Added Tax Act (German UStG).
If you are holder of a Monthly pass (no matter if subscription, transferable, personal or without subscription), a Senior pass or a Corporate pass you can take an adult and three children within your scope and period of validity Monday to Friday from 07:00 p.m. to 05:00 a.m. of the following day and Saturday, Sunday, on public holidays and on 24 and 31 December all-day for free. When using the Monthly pass S, all persons taken with you must have a Region S pass. Instead of a person, you can as well take along a dog. This rule does not apply for Monthly pass education, U21 tickets, School pass, Semester pass GVH, apprenticeship passes or Youth pass and also for the Deutschland ticket.
If you would like to bring a pet with you, you need a valid Single ticket for children or a Day ticket for children. You can also take a dog if you have an additional, transferable Monthly pass for one tariff zone (tariff zone B or C).
Small pets (up to the size of a domestic cat), which are not dangerous, and which are kept in closed containers (for example crates) like carry-on luggage, may be taken along.
Guide dogs for the blind, police dogs and service dogs for disabled individuals, whose ID card contains proof of their eligibility to bring a companion, are always allowed to be taken along for free.
With the Day ticket for groups or a Monthly pass you can take a dog instead of a person. Per Day ticket for groups or Monthly pass maximum one dog can be taken along.
In on-call taxis and the sprinti living pets and thus also dogs can only be transported, provided that they are not larger than a domestic cat, are transported in closed containers and an impairment of persons and property is excluded.
Following pieces of luggage and mobility aids can be taken along for free, as far as the vehicle design allows so:
- Folding bicycles, pedal-scooters and folding trailers – folded only
- Hand luggage, wheelchairs, other orthopaedic aids
- Prams
Please also note the applicable provisions of fare and carriage.
Bicycles can be taken along in the zones ABC Monday to Friday from 08:30 a.m. to 03:00 p.m. and from 07:00 pm to 06:30 a.m. of the following day and during Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays all day long. Bicycle transport in vehicles of regiobus, SVG, sprinti and ÜSTRA is not permitted outside of these times. In the trains of the railway companies bicycles can be transported outside the determined free times if you have a valid Single ticket, 6 trip Single ticket, Day ticket or 6 trip Day ticket for one tariff zone or an additional Monthly pass for zone B or C – regardless of the passed tariff zone or zones.
Please note that the transport of bicycles is only possible if enough space is available inside the vehicle. The carriage of passengers with wheelchairs, walking frames and prams has priority. Safety and the good functioning of the operations come first. For this reason, we ask you to place your bikes orderly, so that nobody will be endangered or affected. Please use particularly the marked parking space or the multi-purpose area.
The transferable Monthly pass and the transferable Monthly pass subscription (as well within the Regional tariff) may as well be used by third parties.
A transferability applies notto the following products:
- Online tickets
- Single tickets
- Day tickets
- Passes and tickets within an educational tariff
- Passes and tickets within a social tariff
- Personal Monthly passes (such as Corporate passes or Senior passes)
- Youth passes and Monthly/Annual passes U21
- School pass
- Semester pass GVH
- Deutschland tickets
If you have a valid Monthly pass for the 1. class of the railway companies but the journey is outside your scope of validity in the 1. class, you need two further valid Single-, 6 trip Single-, Day- or 6 trip Day tickets for the zone, where the starting stop is.
If you have a Single-, 6 trip Single-, Day- or 6 trip Day ticket and want to travel in 1st class using the railway companies, you need an additional Single-, 6 trip Single-, Day- or 6 trip Day ticket for the corresponding zone.
If you have a Monthly pass (transferable or personal) for the 2. class, the additional ticket must be valid for the inscribed zone/s of the used Monthly pass. Each additional person, you want to take with you, needs a corresponding additional ticket.
If you would like to use the 1st class coach in GVH (ABC zones) with the Deutschland ticket, you will require a monthly ticket 1st class surcharge for the Deutschland ticket.
Severely disabled people (with a disabled pass, supplementary sheet and valid token coin), assistants, guide dogs, assistance dogs (token must be presented), wheelchairs, orthopaedic aids and hand luggage may use (or be transported in) the vehicles of all GVH partners (zones ABC) free of charge (2. class only) according to the German Social Insurance Code (Sozialgesetzbuch SGB IX) of 1.7.2001. For assistants applies that they are always necessary and that this is inscribed in the disabled pass (mark B/BN).
Furthermore, severely handicapped persons with the note „1. cl.“ can use the 1. class of the railway companies without additional payment. All other passengers need a ticket for the 1. class, without consideration of the disabled pass.
The registered assistant can use the same class as the pass holder.
If the token is missing, severely handicapped persons must pay the designated price, the assistant and the dog may travel without charge.
Hand luggage, a wheelchair and, where permitted, other orthopaedic aids as well as a guide or assistance dog are carried free of charge.
Children up to the age of 5 (including) can be taken along for free.
Children below school age (up to the age of 6) can be excluded from carriage if they are not accompanied by persons, who have reached at least 6 years. In the rail transport sector (pursuant to Germany's General Railway Act), for children who do not attend school yet up to the age of six, travel is only possible when accompanied by a supervisory person.
With the Single and Day ticket for children, children aged from 6 to 14 travel at a reduced price. The Day ticket S for children is also valid for 6 to 14-year old children, but is valid only in combination with a Region-S card.
A Day ticket for groups up to 10 children can be used for groups of children, e.g. for school or clubexcursions.
Under certain conditions, you can extend the following passes so that you can travel within the entire tariff area (zones ABC):
- Monthly pass (transferable and personal)
- Monthly pass S
- Monthly pass education
- Subscription start pass
You need a further valid Single ticket, 6 trip Single ticket, Day- or 6 trip Day ticket for the area not covered by your Monthly- or Subscription start pass for one zone (A, B or C), independent of the zone(s) passed through.
In case of travelling with city railway or buses with change at the 3. stop resp. (with busses only) at the 5. stop into the next zone, you need at least a Short trip ticket.
If the Monthly pass is valid for the 1. class of the railway undertaking and if the journey takes place outside your area of validity in the 1. class, you need two further valid Single-, 6 trip-, Day- or 6 trip Day tickets for the tariff zone, where the start stop is located.
GVH one-way and day tickets (previously, tickets), which have been purchased in advance from 01.01.2002 to 31.12.2019, could be used for travelling until 30.06.2022. Since then, the use of one-way, day, and collective ticket with the old name “Ticket” and the old zone designations “1 Zone, 2 Zones or 3 Zones” is no longer permitted. They have lost their validity.
The Regional tariff covers the three additional zones D, E and F, located outside the GVH area (zones ABC). Tickets in the Regional tariff are valid for travelling between the GVH area (ABC) and the zones D, E and F of the Regional tariff.
The following stations are located within the Regional tariff and may be reached with a corresponding ticket:
- Zone D: Peine, Vöhrum, Schwarmstedt, Lindwedel, Lindhorst, Bad Münder, Barnten, Emmerke, Nordstemmen, Elze (Han), Algermissen, Harsum, Hildesheim Hbf., Hildesheim Ost
- Zone E: Celle, Stadthagen, Kirchhorsten, Bückeburg, Osterwald, Hodenhagen, Banteln, Groß Düngen, Linsburg, Meinersen and Leiferde
- Zone F: Hameln, Emmerthal, Bad Pyrmont, Hessisch-Oldendorf, Coppenbrügge, Voldagsen, Walsrode, Alfeld, Freden, Hoheneggelsen, Wesseln, Bad Salzdetfurth Solebad, Bad Salzdetfurth, Bodenburg, Derneburg , Nienburg, Gifhorn and Calberlah, Leese-Stolzenau, Eystrup, Rinteln
The GVH Regional tariff is valid in the zones D, E and F on railway routes only as well as subsequently within the GVH area (zones ABC) in buses and trams. At least one station within the GVH area in zone C must be reached. An exception is made for the route Bückeburg – Kirchhorsten – Stadthagen – Lindhorst.
Within the Regional tariff, the following passes are offered:
- Monthly pass
- Monthly pass subscription
- Monthly pass education
- Monthly pass education subscription
- Corporate pass (education), Corporate pass M and S (education)