Transporation companies in the Netherlands have collaborated with Dutch public transport system developer Translink and Mastercard to establish OVpay, a payment system for public transport, which facilitates contactless payments on all modes of public transport, including metros, buses, trains, and trams.
Commuters in the region can now use multiple modes of transportation without needing to buy separate tickets or use different payment systems. They can tap to pay using their credit card, debit card, or digital wallet on all public transport throughout the country.
According to Mastercard’s Jan-Willlem van der Schoot, The Netherlands is the first country in the world to enable checking in with a credit or debit card in public transport available nationwide. “We see that many people face hurdles when wanting to take public transport,” he said in a prepared statement. “From now on, there is no need to separately buy tickets or miss your train because the balance on your public transport card is too low. This has been an amazing team effort.”
Contactless Payments Are on the Rise
The use of contactless payments has impacted many sectors, and growth and adoption has particularly been prominent within the transport industry.
There’s no doubt that the pandemic has accelerated adoption of contactless payments on public transport ,and major cities—including New York—have been making strides to elveate the payments experience on public transport.
What’s more, a survey conducted last year found that commuters in Canada would be more likely to take public transportation if they were able to pay in a contactless manner. And even across the globe, more countries are seeing the advantages of giving consumers the option to pay for public transport—whether that’s with their credit or debit cards or just traditional tokens. contactless payments. Earlier this year, Malaysia’s Ministry of Transportation enabled travelers to make digital payments for their public transportation systems.
Jordan Hirschfield, Director of Prepaid at Javelin Strategy & Research highlighted the importance of meeting riders at their preferred points of payments in his report, “Return To Office Doesn’t Equal Return to Patterns in Prepaid Transit,” He also covered how the future of mass transit can be massively improved by not only investing heavily in enhancing its current infrastructure, but its technology as well by reducing or eliminating cash payments, thereby elevating the customer experience.
“The move by Tran slink represents a growing trend in transit, modernizing systems to meet riders at their preferred points of payments,” he said. “While the move may reduce uses of prepaid transit passes in favor of alternatives, it opens access to more travelers including infrequent participants that seek to pay on an as needed basis.”
