With travel slowly returning to pre-Covid levels, Kyoto faces a dilemma. While it’s great to see more visitors coming to the city and supporting local businesses, overcrowded spaces are a nuisance to locals and tourists alike. Rather than discouraging people from visiting Kyoto’s famous landmarks, however, city officials are working to alleviate congestion by recalibrating means of travel.
One strategy that will be implemented in the near future will involve abolishing the Bus One-Day Pass, which currently allows unlimited travel on inner-city buses for ¥700 (¥350 for children). Though the pass, originally introduced in 1995, provided a practical and budget-friendly solution to getting around Kyoto, its popularity has led to excessively long queues at bus stops, which made commuting difficult for locals.
The city is now planning to stop selling the passes at the end of September this year and will stop accepting the use of the passes after March 2024. The hope is that travellers will instead use the Subway & Bus One-Day Pass, which costs ¥1,100 per adult and ¥550 per child.
With this pass, sightseers can still save money on travel fares while having access to any Kyoto subway line or city bus line, as well as some routes on the Keihan Bus, Kyoto Bus and West Japan JR Bus for a day. The hope is that encouraging the use of both buses and subways will help ease road traffic and make for safer, more convenient travel experiences.
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