The AKBİL (Smart Ticket) application that the Metropolitan Municipality has commenced in Istanbul Sea Buses and in Transportation Corp in April of 1995, has been tested in double-floored IETT buses in September of 1995 and usage of this ticket system has been made widespread in 1996-1997 covering all the IETT buses, the Tünel, the tramcar and some of the Private Public Buses and Marine Lines` city lines. As a consequence, a concrete integration in the in-town public transportation has been achieved.

Economical ticket AKBİL (Smart Ticket)

Usage of the electronic ticket AKBİL for various forms of transportation. IETT has raised the degree of voyage comfort that it has been offering to the citizens of Istanbul. Ongoing works for enabling AKBİL to offer the citizens of Istanbul more economical choices of transport would be more advantageous for them than the integration among the transportation means in the city. IETT, offering transportation services, has not remained indifferent to the people`s search and demands for different economical means of transportation after the economical crisis of preceding years. For this reason IETT has put Daily, Weekly and 15-day Blue Akbil on the market that offer ease of payment. Besides the people living in Istanbul, those who are visiting Istanbul for a short period of time have the chance to benefit from IETT vehicles in a more practical and economical way by this new form of AKBİL usage. AKBİL and its various forms have decreased the transportation wages of IETT`s services down to a more economical level. Recently, 61% of the people who live in Istanbul are using the prepaid akbil ticket that is cheaper than the normal ticket and the blue akbil ticket.

In order to integrate the in-town transportation, we also integrated the IETT bus ticket prices with the Subway of Taksim`s ticket prices when the Levent Transition Center has started operating. The passengers traveling with Akbil started to make transitions free of charge between subway and buses within 1,5 hours after getting on the first vehicle. In addition to this, Blue Akbil users can benefit from Subway for free. The same application will also be applied in the Ferryboats of ISB Enterprise. With the integration of billing system, the passengers would have the chance to benefit from a faster, cheaper and more comfortable way of traveling.

Usage of Daily, Weekly and 15-day Blue Akbil is limited with the selected period and the period starts at the moment the ticket is recharged.

Latest Features of Akbil

Some innovations have been made in Akbil application in order to offer our passengers a faster, easier and more comfortable voyage on the buses, Tünel and Nostalgic Tramcar belonging to our establishment. Summary of these innovations can be listed as follows:

1. The limitation of the validity period with the date has been cancelled for Monthly (Blue) Akbil recharges so that from now on the recharging process can be performed on any day of the month at any time, so that the Akbil will be valid for 31 days from the moment of recharging. Moreover, execution of 7-day, 15-day, daily and Seasonal (Blue) Akbil application has started. For this reason, Seasonal (Blue) Akbil ticket recharging can be made as daily, 7-day, 15-day and 31-day (monthly), including the recharging day, and on any preferred day and time. Monthly, 15-day and 7-day Seasonal (Blue) Akbil should be used along with the Blue Card. Arranging of an extra Blue Card for Daily Akbil usage is not necessary; those tickets are used with the recharging of the preferred period (1 to 5 days) to the readily available handled akbils.

2. It is possible to use on the Private Public Buses working for our establishment and on the transportation vehicles outside the range of our establishment, where Akbil is valid, with the recharging of extra credits.

3. Seasonal (Blue) Akbil applications are made on hourly basis from now on.

4. While recharging the Seasonal (Blue) Akbil; " If there is still a usable day remaining in Akbil, the new period is added to the expiry date remaining period as a multiple of 24 hours. However, Akbils having 5 or more days to go cannot be recharged.
" If there is no credit left in Akbil, the period is added to the ticket as a multiplier of 24 hours beginning from the moment the ticket is recharged; and the expiration hour of the ticket under these circumstances would be 1 hour ahead of the recharging hour.
EXAMPLE: The expiry date for a 15-day Seasonal (Blue) Akbil recharged on 04.09.2001, at 15.20 pm would be: 19.09.2001 at 16.00 pm.

5. Daily Seasonal (Blue) Akbil recharging can be as multiples of a day, being 5 days at most.

6. A separate sound is installed to the transition devices to differentiate the Seasonal (Blue) Akbil from the others.

7. Full fee will be collected from Seasonal (Blue) Akbils each time the Akbil contacts the device after the first contact, and its sound and image on the GKM device will be the same as the full Akbil.

8. Passengers using Seasonal (Blue) Akbil can see the expiry date and time of their Akbils by simply touching the credit sockets available in the buses, tramcars, BSMs and Tünel turnstiles with their Akbils.
NOTE: Seasonal (Blue) Akbils are not valid in double-floored buses. In order to use double-floored buses, extra credits should be recharged into the Seasonal (Blue) Akbils.