The public will soon be able to pay for their public transportation ride using credit and debit cards. This is due to a new directive from the Ministry of Transportation (MoT) which has asked all public transport operators to implement an open payment system.
Transport Minister, Anthony Loke reportedly said that Prasarana has been directed to expand the cashless payment option for its bus and rail services. The same goes for another major rail operator, Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) as well.
While the exact rollout of this option is not yet known at the moment, Anthony has said that the integration process will take several months to be completed. Once that open payment system goes live, this essentially means that Touch ‘n Go (TnG) will no longer have a monopoly hold on the cashless payment method for public transportation.
It goes without saying this news is certainly a long time coming. After all, the new directive also means that Rapid KL and PayNet can finally dust off the dormant MyDebit card readers that they put in place at LRT stations almost three years ago and put them to proper use.
We recently had a taste of what it is like to pay for public transportation using an alternative cashless payment option when we paid for a ride on MRT Putrajaya using an Apple Watch. However, this was done by purchasing a token at the vending machine which is not as seamless as tapping your card or devices directly on the turnstile like what Express Rail Link (ERL) has done for its KLIA Ekspres and KLIA Transit services.
That being said, this does not mean the end of TnG’s existence within the country’s public transportation system though. The minister has pointed out that there is no plan to discontinue the usage of TnG but will become one of several cashless payment options instead of being the sole choice as of now.
(Source: Bernama, Buletin TV3, Malay Mail.)
