Transport for Athens (OASA), the company that operates metro, tram, trolleybus and bus services in the Greek capital, is to upgrade its automated fare collection system to allow boarding with bank cards and mobile devices and to support multi-modal mobility-as-a-service ticketing.

The system’s mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) features will allow interconnection with applications from mobility partners such as taxis, e-bike rentals, airlines and ferry companies, says Transport for Athens.

The new system will mean that passengers will no longer have to find points of sale and buy tickets or top up travel cards prior to travel, and will also allow Transport for Athens to calculate the best fare for the routes taken by each passenger — “an extremely useful feature for passengers who are not familiar with the Athens transportation system, such as visitors from other cities and tourists,” says the transport operator.

The system will be tested on the city’s Airport Express Bus Lines by the end of March 2024, with full roll out promised by the end of the year.

The KTEL group of regional bus companies started rolling out a contactless open loop fare payment system on services in 33 cities and islands across Greece in May 2023.

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