Turin – SAGAT Airport Bus

I haven’t been very impressed with the public transport in Turin and the unnecessarily complex way that buying tickets works. However, I noted that I could get a €5 fare from the city centre to Turin airport if I used my Torino + Piemonte card.

I still don’t think having a ticket purchasing system which requires people to go to bars is ideal, but anyway, it’s signed at least.

But, those with the card can buy their ticket on the bus without a surcharge. This seemed quite advanced compared to the other forms of ticket purchasing I’ve seen in Turin, and I wondered how they knew my 72-hour card was still valid.

My wondering was solved when it transpired that I could have presented any card, the driver couldn’t tell if it was out of date or not. He was very helpful though, although he had to phone a colleague and then find some paper receipts in order to process my transaction as he said he didn’t know how to deal with the card. It seemed unduly fiddly, but the driver remained helpful, even though this caused a delay to the bus journey of five minutes which I was a little conscious of.

I have since discovered that until recently it was possible to buy tickets for this bus service on-line, but that facility has been withdrawn. I hope that they put it back soon, or just let people pay for the journey on the bus itself without this surcharge issue.

Anyway, the bus got to the airport on time and for the price that I had hoped to pay. The driver was friendly, the bus was clean and everything else ran smoothly, so other than the ticket purchasing everything went well. The usual rate for this bus journey is €6.50 and realistically, it’s necessary to use cash to get this as paying by card is challenging.