Passengers using selected ferries and trams in the Finnish capital of Helsinki and buses in the city of Tampere can now make EMV contactless fare payments using an open loop ticketing platform being rolled out by Helsinki Regional Transport and Tampere’s Nysse regional transit authority... More
Passengers on New York subway and bus services have tapped their contactless bank card or mobile wallet to pay their fares using the Omny open loop fare payment system more than 50m times since the service launched in May 2019, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has announced... More
Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is to implement an upgraded contactless ticketing system across its entire network, enabling passengers to pay for their journeys via QR, an EMV bank card or a RuPay-enabled National Common Mobility Card (NCMC)... More
Passengers travelling on the G:link light rail network on Queensland’s Gold Coast are the first to trial an open loop transportation ticketing system that the Australian state plans to roll out across all forms of public transport in 18 regional centres by 2022... More
Passengers using Transport for NSW public transport services in Australia can now apply to take part in a year-long pilot to test a digital version of the Opal transit card that enables them to pay fares from a digital wallet on their mobile phone or smartwatch... More
Nottingham City Transport (NCT) has become the first transportation operator in the UK city to roll out Nottingham Contactless, a multi-operator ticketing system that lets passengers use open-loop debit and credit cards and NFC mobile phones to pay for fares across multiple transportation operators... More
Public transport users in Bonn, Germany, can now make contactless payments for their fares on two key transit routes in the city using their smartphone, smartwatch or contactless debit or credit card as part of a citywide rollout of open loop contactless ticketing... More
The market for payment-enabled wearable devices will reach US$7.2bn in 2024, “driven by a surge in contactless payment adoption, as a result of growing usage of contactless cards and near field communication (NFC)-enabled mobile payments,” ABI Research predicts.... More
Transport for NSW has announced plans to pilot a new digital version of its Opal transit card that will enable cardholders to “pay for all modes of transport — whether it be light rail, a bus, on demand service, taxi or Uber — with a single tap of their phone.”... More
New York’s Omny contactless fare system is to undergo “a blitz phase of installations that will bring the popular new contactless fare payment system to all 472 stations as well as all MTA bus routes by the end of next year,” the city’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has announced... More
The Australian state of Queensland has begun the first of a series of pilots ahead of the rollout of its A$371m (US$249m) Smart Ticketing system, due to go live in 2022. A one-month pilot of new express ticketing gates is taking place at Brisbane’s Central Station More
Travellers in Russia’s capital can now use China UnionPay’s Quickpass contactless cards or an NFC payment app connected to a Quickpass card to pay their fares at 150 Moscow Metro stations, China’s Xinhua news agency reports... More
Public transportation users in Sydney, Australia, are now able to use contactless bank cards, NFC phones or wearable devices to pay for travel across the entire Transport for New South Wales network, including bus services... More
More than 170,000 journeys have been made using Metrolink’s new contactless payment system in the four weeks since the service launched on 15 July, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has revealed... More
New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Agency (MTA) says its new Omny open loop contactless payments system recorded its one millionth transaction on 8 August, “a remarkable milestone accomplished at a much higher usage rate than initially estimated”... More
Israel Railways starts plan to pay for rides using credit cards — The Jerusalem Post — “Israel Railways has launched a two-month contactless payment pilot programme, aiming to soon enable all rail users to ‘tap and go’ with their credit card rather than purchase a ticket or use a preloaded Rav-Kav smartcard… Pilot participants will initially be charged daily based on purchasing full price one-way tickets, although Israel Railways intends to introduce season tickets and discounts for senior citizens, students and other groups in the near future.”
Apple Pay coming to Miami fare system in August — Appleosophy — “Miami-Dade County’s fare system for their transit is set to begin accepting Apple Pay and other forms of contactless payment systems, such as Google Pay and Samsung Pay. According to an image found on Reddit, it would appear as though the Miami-Dade County transit system is set to begin accepting Apple Pay in August 2019.”
Passengers set to benefit from new contactless payments on Metrolink — Transport for Greater Manchester — “The new system will mean customers can simply touch-in at the start of a journey and touch-out at the end using a contactless bank card or another contactless-enabled payment device, such as a phone or watch. The system will then automatically work out the total daily fare for a customer’s journeys and the price will be capped — to ensure they are paying no more than the relevant adult daily one-day travelcard price.”
Train and bus ticketing via phones and plastic to be tested in regional Queensland — ABC News — “The new system allows train, bus and ferry rides to be paid for with the swipe of a credit or debit card, smartphone wallet or smartwatch… The project in Queensland comes with a A$371m (US$257m) price tag, but unlike systems interstate and overseas, it will take in regional cities including Cairns, Townsville, Mackay and the Gold Coast.”
The state of mobile payments in 2019 — Electronic Transactions Association — “In 2018, 55 million people in the US used their smartphone to make a payment at a physical point of sale, whether by loading money into a closed-loop mobile app (like the Starbucks app) or by loading a credit or debit card into an open-loop mobile wallet (like Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay) and using it to pay at the point of sale. These 55 million users account for about 20% of the U.S. population aged 15 and over, and just over 25% of US smartphone users.”