Transport for NSW extends the successful Contactless Payments Trial

By Andy White, Chief Operating Officer at AusPayNet - 12 March 2018

Transport for NSW (TfNSW) has today announced that it is expanding its Contactless Transport Payments Trial to add American Express and Visa; Mastercard has been live since the trial started last July.  TfNSW has also announced that the trial is being extended from the Manly Ferry to all Sydney Ferries and to the L1 Dulwich Hill Light Rail.

Customer feedback on the trial to date has been extremely positive, with users finding the new payment method intuitive and easy to use. The trial enables Sydney commuters to use their contactless payment cards (or devices, such as a smartphone or wearable) to pay for transit just as they would for any other purchase made with their contactless debit or credit card.

The trial will continue to run through 2018 to allow TfNSW to gather data to inform decisions around any further expansion of contactless payments on other services and modes of transport.

A new Open Loop Transport Framework

In parallel to the trial, AusPayNet has, in collaboration with the payments industry and transport authorities, produced an Open Loop Transport Payments Framework. This can be used by transport authorities and/or local transport operators in Australia when looking at implementing open loop contactless (EMV) payments. As well as NSW, other initiatives underway include:

• Queensland's Next Generation Ticketing project includes "options such as 'tap and go' bank cards, smartphones and smart devices"
• Victoria has announced that it is "investigating new contactless technology, including the ability for passengers to touch on and off with their credit card or smartphone"
• WA is investigating "flexible payment options such as smartphone or debit or credit card tag-on capabilities"

Our Framework is designed to ensure a consistent consumer ticketing experience and is intended to help the transport authorities and their partners in implementing open loop. 
 
A Considerations document and a Use Case document have also been produced to be used in conjunction with our Framework, whereby:

• The Considerations document details specific recommendations on open loop best practice, differences between card schemes, and certain edge cases that are applicable to the Australian market.
• The Use Case document outlines standard transaction flows, highlighting where card schemes differ in their processing.

These documents are available to interested parties who are working with local transport authorities or operators.  

If you would like a copy of these documents, please submit your request and details via our Contact Form.