MVGO!

As a US citizen not familiar with public transportation I downloaded and tried multiple apps to help me through Germany’s public transportation. Admittedly we only used the S-Bahn (train) & U-bahn (subway (underground). But the ability to just click the amount of travelers and select your starting station and click complete when you get off is genius and idiot proof. Bonus, it’s has live updates (location awareness) within the app and also allows for the ticket to be active while you hunt for your route. LOVE THIS APP!

To start, the app sign up procedure takes you to visit three different websites: the MVG site to start, then a second site to establish log in credentials, then back to MVG, then to a third site to setup payment, going back through the login site again, then back to MVG to arrange your ride (bike rental in my case). Lots of potential for confusion. The rental process was also confusing, especially if you don’t speak German. The prompts on the bike’s onboard computer screen are only in German. Three of us nearly abandoned the process at the beginning, and were surprised that we finally got our bikes. The in-app map was also confusing. Our drop-off spot didn’t have a bike station… just a place marked only by another parked MVG bike. The map threatened us with a 20€ fee is we left our bikes there, and again the prompts in German were unhelpful. We finally phoned customer support, who was helpful and efficient in accepting our return, but this shouldn’t have been necessary with a better app. I don’t think we were charged the 20€ fee, but the app was vague on this point, saying they might finalize charges at the end of the month. Overall a frustrating and confusing experience, despite the fact that we ultimately got our ride.

From route planning to ticket purchasing, this app can do it all. No need to rent a car when public transit is this good.