Since yesterday, contactless payments by bank card are available for boarding all public transport services of OASA (Bus, Trolleybus, Metro, Tram). OASA, under a contract with Hellas Smart Ticket S.A., a subsidiary of GEK Terna, in cooperation with LG CNS and with the support of Visa and NBG Pay, developed the implementation of the contactless payment system in the capital's urban transport.
HOW THE SERVICE WORKS
The tap2ride service was presented at Syntagma station. With the tap2ride service - which has been available since last April on the airport's Express bus lines - passengers can now board all Athens Public Transport services and pay their ticket by swiping their bank card contactlessly over the validation machines on buses, trolleys, metro and trams.
Similarly, they can use their bank card even if it is embedded, through an App, in their smartphone or smartwatch. Payment cards issued by licensed institutions can also be used.
WHICH TICKETS ARE CONCERNED
The upgraded equipment in the validation machines reads the bank card and charges the value of the journeys to the passenger's account. The travel products that will be included in the system from today will be basic whole tickets (city and airport).
As OASA CEO Kostas Spiliopoulos explained during the event, the service currently concerns the single ticket and the daily ticket, while the other options (65+, reduced, student, etc.) will be gradually integrated. However, the service will be smart and if the passenger makes 5 trips in one day, the daily ticket of €4.1 will be charged and not €6 as would correspond to 5 trips.
Passengers can also use their bank card to travel to and from the airport on Express buses for €5.5 and on the Metro for €9.
€5 MILLION BENEFIT
In addition, he noted that 6,500 machines have been added to buses, trolleybuses, metro, trams, have been converted to smart POS for the implementation of the system and estimated that the use of the service will reduce the costs of OASA, since the costs of tickets amount to €5 million per year.
