Public transportation is pretty common in Iran. Tehran and Mashhad have a metro and you can buy one-way or two-way tickets or a metro card. If you are going to travel a lot by metro, it is better to get a metro card and charge it once in a while; it is also a bit cheaper than the tickets. Each trip will cost you about 20000 Rials according to the distance. Besides, BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) is another option for your transportation in Tehran. You can use the metro cards for BRTs as well. And there are lots of taxis in the streets as well.
One unusual thing about taxis in Iran is that shared taxis are pretty popular and there are taxi stations in different parts of the city for taking a shared taxi. You can also get on a shared taxi in almost every place. Maybe the taxi driver asks you in Persian “Dar Bast?” which means “Do you want a private taxi?”. If you are in a hurry, you can say yes and get in the taxi. Be aware that other normal cars rather than signed yellow taxis also take passengers but it’s always safer to get in the signed, yellow taxis.
What we recommend is installing a ride-hailing application on your phone (Like Snapp or Tapsi) where you can choose your pick-up and drop-off destinations’ location and a nearby driver will accept your ride. Within a 2 to a maximum of 10 minutes, the driver is at your location to pick you up. Since you choose the destination before the ride, the driver will know how to get there through maps and you won’t be worrying about how to tell the driver where to go. It is much easier and also cheaper. There are a number of ride-hailing applications like Snapp and Tap30. But remember that you cannot use them in every city you go to. Snapp is available in 130 cities of Iran and Tap30 is available in some main cities.
Don’t forget to have the internet on your Sim Card to be able to use these applications anywhere. If you have an android, you can download Snapp and Tap30 via Play Store. But if you have an iPhone smartphone, you cannot download it via App Store and you should download Snapp and Tap30 directly from the website.
USING BRT
You can only use the BRT network using Tehran transportation smart credit cards, by which you can use both Metro and BRT. These cards are obtainable from credit card selling booths in Metro stations and “EZ pay” kiosks next to BRT stations. You can also add funds to your cards in these places.
To use them place them atop of the reader device in the bus stops which charges your credit about 200000 Rials (differs in different lanes), afterwards you can get on the bus.
If you leave the bus but not the station, you can get on another bus in the same lane without paying again, but when you leave the station, you have to use your card to enter again.
You have to pay the fare again when changing lanes.
As we mentioned earlier, BRT busses can be very crowded during rush hours, impeding entry and exit.
As a tourist of a few days in Iran, you might not need to take a bus and mostly take a taxi or hire a driver to tour around the city. But if you intend to stay longer in Iran, the buses are very cheap and are practically a free ride to travel around the city. They are well connected and carry a great load of traffic in the city.
Bus Rapid Transport (BRT)
BRT is the most useful and rapid buses on dedicated lanes in Tehran. The BRT carries about 2 million people a day. The buses normally arrive every three or four minutes in 10 routes across the city.
Travelers can buy pre-paid cards or Metro Cards to tap their card to pay for their ride. Travelers can purchase their Bus and Metro card from ticket machines at metro stations, and BRT stops.
Once the card is purchased, they are chargeable by bus conductors or travelers can charge them at ticket machines.
Buses
Local bus network in Tehran is quite extensive. Although buses are very crowded and slow compared with the Metro, they are relatively cheap compared with taxis and other transportation systems. If you do, you’ll find buses run from 5am until 9pm. There are 10 active night bus routes working from 10pm to 5am to cover the night journeys in Tehran.
You can either pay cash to drivers at the end of your journey or tap your pre-paid Bus and Metro Card to pay for your ride. The cards can be charged at ticket booths in every bus stop or bus terminals.
How to ride buses in Tehran
Use Bus App
Tehran municipality published an application on both Android and iOS for travelers to plan their journey by public transport. Users can check bus and metro arrivals, congestion zones, gas stations, hospitals and many closer to the point of choice.
Choosing the starting and ending point of a journey; the application suggests the best routes between stations and stops, places of interest, address. The Android version of Tehran Traffic is available for free download from Google Play. If you can read Persian, it is also available to download for iOS.
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