Race to pay for public transport

The Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien metro line has become the preferred choice for people when going to school or work. Banks are launching a series of incentives to attract customers to open cards and make cashless payments when traveling by metro.

Ho Chi Minh City residents are used to taking the metro and paying cashlessly - Photo: TTD

After 5 months of operation of the Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien metro line, passengers have a variety of cashless payment options, such as using NAPAS cards, MasterCard cards or scanning QR codes with MoMo e-wallet accounts to pay at the ticket gate.

Cashless metro ride

Many banks have joined the race to issue payment cards for the metro line. Vikki Bank cooperated with international card organization MasterCard to issue VikkiGO card.

Users can use VikkiGO cards to pay for subway tickets at all stations on metro line 1 by tapping the card on the authentication device to pass through the ticket gate, very quickly and conveniently.

Vikki Bank is currently one of the digital banks connecting the automatic train ticket payment system with the card payment system. With the VikkiGO prepaid card, customers only need to top up and use, helping to separate the source of money and ensure safety and security.

In mid-April, BIDV also launched the BIDV 68 card duo at Ben Thanh metro station, and offered unlimited free rides on the Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien route and Saigon River water bus when customers used BIDV MasterCard for cashless payments, valid until June 30.

Sacombank cooperates with HURC1 and MasterCard to deploy an automatic ticket payment system using Open-loop technology on metro line 1 Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien, allowing customers to tap their cards for cashless payments from all banks and card organizations.

Ms. Lan Anh (working in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City) said that since the metro line was built, she can easily meet friends for coffee in Thu Duc City, whereas before she was very shy.

"Before, if I made an appointment like that, I would have lost hundreds of thousands of dong in taxi fares to and from school, not to mention getting stuck in traffic. Now I don't even have to pay for transportation because I opened a card and the bank gives me free metro rides for three months," she said.

Taking the Hanoi metro: hoping not to use cash

Ms. LTN (Ha Dong, Hanoi) said that every time she takes the Cat Linh - Ha Dong metro, she buys a single ticket because she does not use it often. However, she finds it a bit inconvenient that she has to use cash to buy tickets and cannot pay by bank transfer.

"Cat Linh - Ha Dong Metro, automatic ticket machines only accept 50,000 VND bills. In addition, it takes about 1 minute to buy a ticket on the machine, including selecting the destination, inserting money into the machine, waiting for the machine to accept the money and returning the change along with the train ticket," Ms. LTN informed and hoped that Hanoi would soon implement cashless payments.

Using the metro to go to work every day, Mr. NVH (Nguyen Trai, Hanoi) also hopes that Hanoi will soon connect the electronic ticket payment system for public transport. He said that he uses the metro and bus every day so he uses a monthly ticket.

When taking the metro, use the metro ticket card, when taking the bus, use the bus ticket card even if you have used the virtual ticket card on your smartphone.

"I find it quite inconvenient because I have to keep many cards such as citizen ID card, bank card, bus card, metro card... Will people in Hanoi be able to use bank cards to pay for metro and bus rides like in Shanghai, Tokyo... in the future?

Or in the future, metro passengers will open their smartphones to buy tickets?" - Mr. NMT asked because now people use their phones to scan QR codes for vegetables and meat at the market, and it only takes 1-2 seconds to pay.

Hanoi residents still have to queue up to buy metro tickets with cash - PHOTO: LE THANH

On September 2, Hanoi will connect metro and bus tickets.

Mr. Do Viet Hai, Deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Construction, said that Hanoi has basically completed policies to develop a smart ticket card system.

The interoperable ticket system will ensure connectivity not only with passenger transport services but also with automatic fare collection services, parking lots, etc. The policy brings new conveniences that contribute to encouraging people to use public transport.

According to Mr. Hai, the inter-ticket system is expected to officially launch on September 2. The system will not only apply to public passenger transport routes in Hanoi but also has the potential to expand nationwide. In the future, people can use their citizen identification cards to travel - similar to a bank card or a regular shopping card.

Within the current technical framework that Hanoi has built, integration with citizen identification cards or VNeID is entirely feasible. After completing the technical framework, the prerequisite for effective operation is to build a flexible fare policy, suitable for time frames, seasons and passenger groups. The ultimate goal is to attract more people to use public transport.

Admit the shortcomings

Mr. Khuat Viet Hung, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hanoi Metro, admitted that the current problem is that the ticket cards of the two metro lines Nhon - Hanoi Station and Cat Linh - Ha Dong are not yet connected. Passengers traveling on a route will have to buy tickets separately for that route.

Therefore, he really hopes to be able to connect the ticket system between urban railway lines, between urban railways and buses so that people do not use cash to buy tickets.

"Currently, the Nhon - Hanoi Railway Station metro line is under warranty by the contractor, so cashless payment technology cannot be applied immediately but must wait.

The Cat Linh - Ha Dong metro line is out of warranty, so we will invite the Ministry of Public Security to coordinate to implement the plan of using VNeID to buy tickets. It is expected that this system will be put into operation around September 15," Mr. Hung informed.

Infrastructure ready for digital payments

Currently, the number of people using the metro is increasing, up to 70,000 on weekends. If using cash, people will have to go to the counter to buy tickets and in reality, there are long queues, causing inconvenience, especially during rush hours in the early morning or afternoon.

While using bank cards for payment is much faster. Mr. Nguyen Hoang Long, Deputy General Director of NAPAS, said that since February 14, NAPAS has coordinated with Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Company No. 1 to deploy payment service using NAPAS cards on metro line No. 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien).

Accordingly, passengers can use domestic NAPAS cards as well as international cards and e-wallets to pay when traveling on this metro line. Just tap the NAPAS card on the control device at the entrance gate (tap-in) and after finishing the journey at the exit gate (tap-out), passengers have completed the payment transaction for the trip simply, quickly and very conveniently.

"When buying a bunch of vegetables at the market, customers pay by scanning a QR code. There is no reason why we cannot apply modern, convenient and safe payment methods on public transport infrastructure, especially the metro," Mr. Long emphasized.

As for the metro line in Hanoi, according to Mr. Long, the entire implementation has been fully prepared by the banking industry in general and NAPAS in particular in terms of technical infrastructure, operations, and products.

When the transport sector has a need and policy for interconnection, the parties will coordinate to create an open interconnection system between the automatic ticket control cards of public transport vehicles and the bank's cashless payment card system.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/chay-dua-thanh-toan-cho-giao-thong-cong-cong-20250525214552983.htm