The city is planning to introduce a free local public transport pass for children between the ages of 6 and 14 attending public education institutions operating in Debrecen.
Debrecen’s general assembly will decide on the introduction of the new pass type at its meeting scheduled for January 25th, 2024. Mayor László Papp and Minister of Construction and Transport János Lázár reported on the details at a press conference.
Mayor László Papp spoke about how he and János Lázár reviewed the development issues of the past period and the near future, which clearly shows that Debrecen is one of the most important development centers in Hungary today. Speaking about the ongoing developments, he said that the support system established between Debrecen and the Ministry of Construction and Transport exceeds HUF 159 billion. In the following years, these will induce a total of HUF 300 billion in development resources. Significant improvements are being made to the urban infrastructure, especially regarding the urban water utility network and the transport road network. Reflecting on the public transport news of the past few days, the mayor drew János Lázár’s attention to the fact that, due to agglomeration relations, it is important to reconsider the issues of agglomeration public transport not only in Budapest, but also in the big cities in the countryside.
László Papp highlighted that public transport will continue to be a priority in Debrecen, and an important point of this is the travel discount system for young people and children. He announced that the city government of Debrecen has set a goal of providing free local public transport passes to children and students between the ages of 6 and 14 in public education institutions operating in Debrecen from April 1st, 2024. Regarding the details, László Papp explained that the free student pass is Debrecen
It would be available using a City Card or the newly created Junior Debrecen City Card for this purpose
The newly introduced pass will also be available to children who do not live in Debrecen, but attend kindergartens and schools operating in the city. The city wants to create the Junior Debrecen City Card for them, or for children aged 6-14 living in Debrecen who do not have a Debrecen City Card, or who have a city card but want to use their student pass on a separate card. For more than 3 years, the Debrecen City Card has enabled residents of Debrecen who require the city card to enjoy unique benefits and discounts, to be able to use them at the accepting partners, and to exchange passes for local public transport. The experiences so far have been extremely favorable: by January 2024, 23,495 people had redeemed the Debrecen City Card.
The Debrecen City Card, which also functions as a free student pass, and the Junior Debrecen City Card can be applied for by the children’s legal representatives using an easy-to-fill online interface through an electronic system and application created for this purpose by the Ministry of the Interior. Named plastic cards are issued by the city card issuers, grouped by public education institution, and within them by kindergarten group and school class, then handed over to the administrators of the public education institutions, and finally, through the administrators, the public education institutions forward them to the eligible children and their parents. Children in the affected age group who already have a Debrecen City Card would not be required to apply for a new one. According to the data provided by the city card operator, 2,186 Debrecen City Cards have been issued to the age group of 6-14 so far, i.e. in this number of cases it is possible to activate the free local transport pass on the already existing city card, if the child’s legal representative decides so.
Based on preliminary estimates, there are 16,000 children between the ages of 6 and 14 attending kindergarten, primary school, and 6th and 8th grade high school in the city who may be entitled to use the free pass. The municipality intends to enter into support contracts with a total of 20 operators of all relevant public education institutions operating in the city (basically elementary schools, 6th and 8th grade high schools, and kindergartens for children who have reached the age of 6 but are still in kindergarten).
Source and photo: Debrecen City Hall
