Bratislava’s bus stops to undergo name changes to accommodate rising tourist numbers

Many of the capital’s public transport stops will be renamed and made shorter and easier to understand so that foreigners find it easier to navigate the city

The public transport operating company in the Slovak capital of Bratislava has announced that starting 13 December, many of the city’s bus stops will be renamed and made shorter and easier to understand. The change is prompted in no small part due to the increasing number of tourists arriving in Slovakia and will make life and navigation easier for them once they start exploring the urban area.

Preparing for a post-pandemic tourism boom

Starting 13 December citizens of Bratislava will see that many of the names of public transport stops have changed. Most of them would have been simplified and made easier to understand, while others would have returned their historic names at the expense of their newer and commercial ones.

According to the company responsible for public transport in the Slovak capital, DPB, ignoring the pandemic, tourists visiting Bratislava have been increasing substantially on a yearly basis. Thus, the need to accommodate them and their navigational needs has grown and has become increasingly hard to ignore.

Some of the changes are purely practical in nature. For example, for stations, the new abbreviation stn. will be used instead of the current abbreviation ŽST, as it contains consonants from station designations in various languages ​​(station in English, estación in Spanish, stazione in Italian).

Others, however, are meant to return some historical memories to the city. As some names of localities have disappeared over time and they still lack adequate compensation, the city decided to return this lost charm through the renaming of the stops. Thanks to extensive research of historical maps and documents, it has become possible to return the original names to some stops around the city.

You can check out the full list of changes and name swaps on the DPB website in order to make sure you don’t get lost when travelling by bus in Bratislava.