Public Transport Victoria reports strong takeup for Mobile Myki transit cards

Mobile phone with writing to the right
TRAVEL DOWN UNDER: The Mobile Myki transit card is stored in the Google Pay app on a user’s Android phone

Nearly 100,000 travellers in the Australian state of Victoria have used the Mobile Myki NFC-based mobile transit ticketing service since its launch in March with adoption set to accelerate further after the addition of support for the Apple iPhone, which is planned for 2019-20.

In the first 24 hours following its launch on 28 March, nearly 11,000 used the system, which allows passengers to tap their NFC-enabled Android smartphones at Myki readers to travel Victoria’s public transport network.

The virtual Mobile Myki transit card is stored in the Google Pay app on customers’ phones. They can then use it to touch on and off the network, check their balance in real time, top up their account on the go and view their travel history.

There have been about 1,000 Mobile Myki activations a day since launch.

More than half (57.8%) of the early adopters have been using Mobile Myki to travel Melbourne’s train network. It has proved most popular with 25-34 year olds who make up more than 30% of total users.

“We’ve seen an incredible response to Mobile Myki in just over two months and we’re getting on with the development and technical testing needed to make this technology available for people with other smartphones,” said Victoria’s Minister for Public Transport Melissa Horne.

Watch a short video showing how to add a Myki card to the new mobile service:

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