The Smart Ticketing project is a Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) initiative that is introducing new ways to pay for travel. Smart Ticketing is making it easier for you to plan, catch and pay for public transport by:
introducing new contactless payment methods
upgrading existing ticketing equipment
delivering new digital channels to improve how customers can self-manage their travel account online
Smart Ticketing is in the progress of rolling out on SEQ Buses. At the time of posting, only 3 regions remain:
Gold Coast
Logan (Clarks)
Brisbane (BCC)
Once complete in SEQ, Smart Ticketing will be progressively rolled out in rural urban areas served by Translink.
Smart Ticketing operator activation typically occurs on Monday every couple weeks. There hasn’t been a new operator activated since mid December, so we can expect a new operator to be activated within the next couple of weeks. I suspect that they have been holding off during the rail closures which are scheduled to end this Sunday.
Logan is half-done. Bus Qld (PRT), which services western Logan (around Browns Plains area, Greenbank, Park Ridge, Flagstone etc), and also Beaudesert, has Smart Ticketing enabled.
It is, but SEQ is first. Once SEQ is complete, other urban areas under Translink will have it rolled out. Cairns never got Gocard installed, hence why it’s still cash until Smart Ticketing is rolled out. Not sure about the other urban centres personally.
Interestingly enough Kinetic Rockhampton has the ability to accept card/smart payment.
The system also has smart cards available for school students via an app called Transportme Passenger, which is primarily intended for parents to track their kids, but it does also include live tracking of all public buses as well.
“Transportme™ have provided yet another first for Bus Operators and the Public, by integrating both the Pax A920 Payment Terminal and the Square System into our software solution.”
As reported by the Courier Mail, looks like another few months still before credit and debit cards are accepted on BCC and GC buses. Concessions will be active by the end of the year as well.
That’s a good thing isn’t it while they are working on it. Anyway I would have thought it could have been up and running on Bne buses this week or next week in line with the M2 launch.
The Government media statement says that smart ticketing will be active on all buses in Seq by June. They are also working on the Translink Card as well to replace the Go Card.
The Transit Officers checking Go Cards on my service this morning made an announcement the February 24 is the date that Smart Ticketing will be switched on for Clarks services.
Whatever system they use to replace Go-cards, if they are planing to use the direct bank transfer method, what guarantees of security can they provide to stop thieves and fraudsters from getting your bank card details card from card skimming devices or tampering with tap-on/off machines located at stations?
Contactless card payments are extremely secure; more so than inserting or swiping a card. Even if they managed to skim the data, they would be unable to make payments due to the dynamic encryption used to verify payments.
They use virtual tokens that expire, don’t they? Much better than a physical card.
Master Card will soon replace all their cards with numberless cards in the future but the card could still be used for tap payments if it got into the wrong hands.
I’ve noticed over the past few days that Clarks buses, which started out with only a single validator placed at the front of the bus, are now being fitted out with an additional front validator fitted behind the front passenger side seat.
This isn’t just on the newer buses in the fleet either. I’m on an older, single door Bustech that has the second one installed.
that looks legit just like a square card reader haha