Başkentkart (Ankarakart): One Card for the Metro, Ankaray, Başkentray and the Buses

One card, one name change

Ankara's transport card is issued by EGO, the metropolitan municipality's transit company, and it has two names. It launched in 2014 as the Ankarakart; since October 2024 EGO's app and pages call it the Başkentkart (formally 'Başkent Kart Ulaşım'), and old Ankarakarts carry on working under the new name. Locals, kiosks and news sites still say Ankarakart — treat the two as one thing.

It works on the metro — M1 Kızılay–Batıkent, M2 Kızılay–Koru (Çayyolu), M3 Batıkent–OSB-Törekent and the separate M4 Kızılay–Keçiören — on the A1 Ankaray between AŞTİ and Dikimevi, on the EGO city buses, on the blue private ÖHO buses and the smaller ÖTA vehicles, and on Başkentray, TCDD's Sincan–Kayaş suburban train, which has taken the card since it opened in April 2018 under a municipality–TCDD protocol. Tap the validator as you board a bus; on rail you tap at the turnstiles. Ankaray meets Başkentray at Kurtuluş and Maltepe; the Kızılay hub meets it at Yenişehir.

The two-cards-called-Başkent trap. The municipality also sells a Visa prepaid city card called 'Başkent Kart' (two words) for shopping and bill payment. It is not the transport card and the offices below won't load it. You want the Başkentkart Ulaşım from EGO.

Where to get one

Anonymous full-fare cards are sold at the Başkentkart Ulaşım gişe windows in the metro stations (cash), at the kiosks (bank card) and at thousands of dealers — shops with the sign in the window; the official locator is baskentkart.ego.gov.tr. Anything that needs a person goes to a card office (Kart İşlem Merkezi). The main one is in Kızılay metro station — weekdays 08:00–20:00, Saturdays 11:00–16:00 — with offices at Dikimevi, Beşevler, Akköprü, Millî Kütüphane, Beytepe, Koru, OSB-Törekent and Keçiören on weekdays 08:00–17:00 and Saturdays 11:00–16:00 (Millî Kütüphane, Beytepe and Törekent close 12:00–13:00). The desk in EGO's headquarters at Hacı Bayram Mah. Sanayi Cad. Ulus İşhanı A Blok No:2, Altındağ, is weekdays only, 08:00–17:00. All are closed on Sundays. The old ankarakart.com.tr site answered 'Bakımdayız' (under maintenance) when we checked — the live portal is baskentulasim.com.

Topping up

Kiosks and the gişe windows take cash or bank card; dealers take cash. Online, load through the EGO Cep'te app or baskentulasim.com — EGO says online card-loads by credit card carry no bank commission since February 2025.

The tap-to-land trap. An online load is an instruction, not a deposit. The rule EGO has given since the card's early years — spelled out in a Ministry of Finance FAQ for its staff cards — is that after every online load you must hold the card to a validator on a bus or at a metro station: the first tap writes the balance onto the card, the next tap pays. Until then the card reads empty and a kiosk won't show the money. ⚠ VERIFY: EGO replaced its whole fare-collection system in mid-2024; users still report the behaviour, but we have not found EGO restating the rule for the new validators.

Transfers

The transfer rule is a discount, not a free ride: within 75 minutes of your first tap a full-fare, discounted or teacher card gets up to two reduced-fare transfers across EGO buses, ÖHO, ÖTA, the metro, Ankaray and Başkentray. The one free step is the first transfer between a ring (ring) route and the rail system, in either direction. Bank cards and phone taps get no transfers at all.

No card yet? Your bank card boards everything

Contactless Mastercard, Visa and Troy cards and NFC phones work on EGO buses, ÖHO, ÖTA, the metro, the Ankaray and Başkentray — full single fare plus a fixed surcharge, no transfers. Buy a Başkentkart the first time you pass a gişe.

The app

EGO Cep'te (iOS, Android, AppGallery) shows a registered card's balance, history and abonman end date, loads money, tracks buses live, and can hold a virtual QR/NFC card that boards without plastic. Keep the physical card as the default.

What a ride costs

Fares change too often for a number here to stay true — check the tariff on the EGO page linked below.

Card types and who qualifies

Three classes: tam (full fare, anonymous or personalised), indirimli (students, teachers, and 62–64-year-olds who ride free off-peak 10:30–15:00 and 19:00–24:00), and serbest (over-65s, people with a 40%+ disability and their carers). Personalising a tam card protects the balance if it is lost — since January 2026 you can do it at baskentulasim.com under 'Kart Kişiselleştirme' instead of at an office; kiosks can't. Discounted cards are issued at the card offices for a fee and, for students and teachers, need an annual 'vize' renewal (online at baskentulasim.com). EGO asks for an ID card, one photo and the student or teacher paper if the system can't see you; 62–64s add proof of Ankara residence. The student monthly abonman is not valid on Başkentray, which belongs to TCDD.

Foreigners: EGO's pages say nothing about non-citizens. Student groups report the Kızılay and Beşevler offices taking the Turkish foreigner ID (YKN) plus an enrolment letter for the student card, and the online personalisation form is keyed to a TC number. ⚠ VERIFY at the Kızılay office with your residence permit before assuming a discounted card.

The Şentepe teleferik: don't plan on it

The free EGO cable car from Yenimahalle metro up to Şentepe opened in 2014, sat closed through the pandemic and an overhaul (2020–22), lost its upper section to a broken cable in January 2024 and was shut entirely on 25 April 2024 — first for wind, then indefinitely after a court annulled the zoning plan behind it. In July 2024 the municipal council authorised EGO to close the line and dismantle, sell or donate the equipment; in early 2026 local press still described it as standing idle. The 271 bus covers the route. ⚠ VERIFY before repeating any 'reopening' story — every one we found dates from 2022.

The airport: bus, not train

There is no rail to Esenboğa. Başkentray does not go there, and the YHT Gar–Kuyubaşı–Esenboğa metro (12 stations, about 36 km) exists only as a ministry project: construction was 'targeted' for 2026 and the June 2026 build tender was cancelled. Three buses instead, each with its own airport fare: EGO 442 AŞTİ–Kızılay–Ulus–airport, about every 13 minutes by day and 25 at night, taking Başkentkart, contactless bank cards and cash; Havaş to AŞTİ via Pursaklar and Ankamall, paid on board — though Havaş's own site says its Esenboğa–YHT Gar run was stopped by court order on 30 April 2024 and lists no Ankara route, so ⚠ VERIFY the AŞTİ service still runs; and AnkaraAir (the former BELKO AIR) to Kızılay, cash reported on board, whose old belkoair.com domain is dead — ⚠ VERIFY timings on 444 9 312.