Istanbul Transit Fares Increase 35%

This week, Istanbul raised public transportation fares for their buses, tram, metro and marmaray electronic tickets, otherwise known as Istanbulkart. Istanbulkart is the reloadable transit fare payment method in Istanbul and (is still) the cheapest way to use public transportation in the city. Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, pledged to reduce bus fares when running for office and residents were caught completely off-guard by the change.

İmamoğlu defended the fare increase and said while he acknowledges the complaints, the fares have not changed since 2017 and needed to be increased to account for the increase in operational costs like fuel prices.

We have updated our Istanbul public transportation information to account for this fare increase.