BursaKart: One Card for BursaRay, the Buses and the Trams

One card, the municipal network

The BursaKart (you'll also hear it called BuKart) is Bursa's contactless transport card, issued by Burulaş, the metropolitan municipality's transit company. A single card works on BursaRay — the two-line metro that runs east–west through the city and out to the university — on the Burulaş city buses, and on the trams: the T1 ring along Atatürk Caddesi between Kent Meydanı and Heykel, the T2 out to the intercity bus terminal, and the little T3 heritage tram from Zafer Plaza to Çınarönü. Tap the validator as you board a bus or tram; on BursaRay you tap at the turnstiles.

Two things that are not on the card, because people assume they are: the BUDO sea buses to Istanbul, which Burulaş also runs but sells as a separate reserved-seat ticket (see below), and the Uludağ teleferik, a private concession with its own ticket gates. The official BursaKart pages describe the card as valid on BursaRay, buses and trams and nowhere else — treat that as the rule.

Where to get one

The yellow kiosks at BursaRay stations sell cards and take top-ups. So do thousands of dealers around the city — corner shops, markets and tobacconists with the BursaKart sign in the window. For anything that needs a person (a personalised card, a lost card, a student or senior card) there are card offices: the main one is inside Şehreküstü BursaRay station in the center — weekdays 07:30–18:30 without a lunch break, Saturdays 10:00–15:45, closed Sundays — with smaller weekday-only offices at Arabayatağı and Uludağ Üniversitesi stations, at Acemler, at the intercity terminal, and in the district towns, Gemlik included.

Topping up

Kiosks take cash or a bank card; dealers take cash. You can also load online — through the BursaKart Mobil app or bursakart.com.tr, with the 14-digit number printed on the card and this is where newcomers get caught.

The pending-balance trap. An online or app top-up does not go straight onto the card. It sits in the system as a bekleyen bakiye, a pending balance, and is written to the card the next time you tap it on a bus validator or a BursaRay turnstile. In practice that means it works — you tap, the balance lands, the fare is taken — but it means the card itself reads empty until that tap, and the kiosk won't show the money. If you need to be sure, load at a kiosk.

The app

BursaKart Mobil (iOS, Android, AppGallery) tops up your card or anyone else's, checks the balance, plans a route ('Nasıl giderim'), and shows where your bus is. It can also hold a virtual card and sell single-use QR or NFC tickets that board buses and BursaRay without a physical card — handy on day one, and you can even send a QR ticket to a friend. Vehicles are fitted for this at different speeds, so keep a physical card as your default and treat the phone as the backup.

Transfers are the part people miss

Bursa's transfer rule is a discount, not a free ride: within 90 minutes of your first tap you get reduced fares on up to three further boardings across BursaRay, buses and trams, with the size of the reduction depending on which kinds of line you are moving between. Journeys that start on the outlying district services get a free onward transfer onto the rail system inside the same 90 minutes. The window runs from the first boarding, so a bus–metro–bus trip across the city is meaningfully cheaper than three separate fares — if you are using a BursaKart. Bank cards and single-use tickets get no transfer rights.

Pay as you go on BursaRay

Since September 2024 BursaRay has 'pay as you go': short metro journeys get part of the fare back when you tap out at the refund validators on your way off. The rules are fussy — it applies only to journeys that started on BursaRay, only to standard full-fare cards, not to the virtual card in the app, not on the T2 line, and not if you have already taken a transfer discount into the metro. Tap out anyway; the system sorts out what you're owed.

No card yet? Your bank card boards the metro

Contactless Visa and Mastercard cards, and NFC phones, are accepted at the BursaRay turnstiles and on buses fitted with the newer validators. It is the day-one answer: full single fare each tap, plus a small bank commission, no discounts and no transfers. Get a real BursaKart the first time you pass a kiosk — it pays for itself within the week.

What a ride costs

Fares change too often for a number written here to stay true — check the current tariff on the official Burulaş pages linked below before you load the card.

Card types

Cards come in three colours: green full-fare cards, anonymous or personalised; white discounted cards for students, teachers and people over 60; and red free-travel cards for over-65s, people with disabilities and their carers. Personalised and discounted cards are issued at the card offices and are valid for a year from application, then renewed. If you are a foreign student at a Bursa university, the student card applies to you — the regulation covers foreign students explicitly — so bring your residence permit and your enrolment document to the Uludağ Üniversitesi or Şehreküstü office. Foreign residents wanting a personalised full-fare card (it protects the balance if the card is lost) should bring the residence permit and a photo and ask at Şehreküstü; the exact document list is the office's to confirm.

The sea buses and the teleferik

BUDO — Bursa Deniz Otobüsleri — is Burulaş's own line to Istanbul, but it is a ferry with seat reservations, not a tap-and-go service: buy a ticket online, in the BUDO app, at a pier kiosk or at the counter. Since 1 January 2026 its Istanbul end is Kabataş rather than Eminönü, and the crossing from Mudanya is a little under two hours. İDO, a different company, runs Yenikapı–Bursa to the Güzelyalı pier west of Mudanya. City buses connect both piers to the center. The teleferik up Uludağ sells its own tickets at the Teferrüç base station and online; nothing on the official BursaKart pages says the card is accepted there, so don't plan on it.