The Department for Infrastructure and Transport (DIT) has announced the popular tap-and-pay fare technology is to be introduced on O-Bahn buses after a successful trial on Adelaide trams.
Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Corey Wingard said the tap-and-pay trial was embraced by thousands of tram commuters and would eventually be rolled out to all Adelaide Metro buses and trains.
Mr Wingard said the technology would now remain on all trams and be available on O-Bahn buses from July 2022.
He said the tap-and-pay trial began on trams in September 2020, allowing commuters to tap-on using their Visa, Mastercard or smart device instead of using a metroCARD or MetroTicket.
Mr Wingard said tap-and-pay quickly became a popular payment option, overtaking the equivalent MetroTicket validations on trams during the first month of the trial to become the fastest growing customer choice in single regular fares.
“We have been thrilled to see how quickly tram commuters have embraced this new technology, with the number of tap-and-pay travellers growing each month,” he said.
“An average of 8,077 commuters per month have tapped onto trams using their Visa, Mastercard or smart device in the past three months.
“This was significantly higher than the average 4,886 commuters per month that purchased paper MetroTickets during the same period.”
Mr Wingard said the tap-and-pay trial was part of stage one of an upgrade of the Adelaide Metro ticketing system.
“This new form of payment complements the existing metroCARD and Seniors Card payment options; if you have a metroCARD or a Seniors Card, continue to use it,” he said.
Mr Wingard said inspectors would be able to check whether or not passengers had tapped-on, but privacy would be protected with only the last four digits of the credit card visible.
Further information on tap-and-pay can be accessed at this PS News link.
