The local transportation company, RATB runs street-level transportation in Bucharest, which consists of an extensive network of buses, trolleybuses and trams. RATB is a great way of getting around Bucharest. The ground transportation system operates between 05:00 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. daily. Tickets must be purchased beforehand and validated upon boarding.
RATB has recently changed the system and now uses plastic cards instead of paper tickets. You can buy  a plastic card and then re-charge it with amounts of money covering several trips, or you can charge it with monthly or daily subscriptions, valid on one bus, tram or trolley line or on several. The card must be validated after boarding the bus using the orange devices located throughout the bus by keeping the card in front of the machine for some seconds.
A one-way trip is 1.3 RON. Any transfer to another means of transport implies a new validation. Express buses require a different kind of card for validation (carton one, similar to the ones for the metro, but cannot be used in the metro system).

The Activ Card also available; ‘Activ’ is just the name of a simple card which must be validated at the control machine situated in each bus. When issuing an Activ card, the minimum amount that can be loaded (without adding a monthly pass option) is RON 30, and the maximum amount is RON 50. When loading the e-purse at the same time with a RATB monthly pass, the minimum amount that can be loaded is RON 50. When loading the e-purse at the same time with a Metrorex monthly pass, the minimum amount that can be loaded is RON 3, and the maximum amount is 50.

The express bus system is more useful for reaching destinations outside the city centre, asonly a few express buses actually pass through the centre itself. Two- or 10-journey tickets, as well as monthly passes, are available for these buses. RATB maps can be found at kiosks near bus and tram stops. Further information about express buses can be found in the Airport section of this guide.