Buses in Uppsala: the UL app and bus card

Lately, riding my bike to SLU has become a difficult task because of the low temperatures and slippery roads. I salute all those students who can still ride their bikes in these conditions, but I’m a fairly new cyclist, so that’s why I decided to trade my two-wheeled friend for a warmer and more comfortable mean of transportation.

One of the first things I learned about riding the bus in Uppsala, is that bus time tables are not very reliable. Sometimes you’ll find yourself waiting for over 15 min, or rushing to the bus stop because the bus arrived a few minutes earlier than it was supposed to. To avoid this, I recommend installing the UL app, so you get frequent updates on the buses’ timetables.

The UL app is useful not only for checking buses’ schedules, but also for planning trips, and buying tickets. You can even buy tickets for the local train or for the  bus that takes you to Arlanda.

If you want to buy a ticket through this app, you first need to introduce your credit card’s information, and then load some money into it; when you purchase a ticket, the money will be discounted from your funds. Every local ticket costs 23 SEK and is valid for 75 minutes, which gives you time to hope into several buses with the same ticket if necessary.

Purchasing tickets through the app method is really useful if you don’t use the bus that much, but if you are like me, that needs to use it every day, it’s better to get a monthly card. You can get this card at the central station, but I’ve found that getting it in any of the Pressbyrån convenience stores is much easier. For students with the mecenat card, the price for a monthly card goes around 570 SEK, but if you don’t have a student’s discount, the price goes around 840 SEK.

Hope this post was somewhat useful and don’t forget to leave a comment.

Have a nice day,

Anna