Gov't mulls smartcard ticket for LRT, MRT

The government announced this week that it is putting to bid a common ticketing system that will allow daily commuters to use a micro-chip powered single ticket when they ride the LRT and MRT train lines.

^{Hong Kong's Octopus microchip-powered ticket. Photo credit: asiancorrespondent.com}

DOTC Secretary Manuel Roxas said in a press briefing that the concept is similar to Hong Kong’s Octopus stored value ticket with a micro chip that allows the owner of the ticket to top up the value of the ticket.

The ticket can also serve as an ATM card which can be used to purchase items in convenience stores, Roxas said.

“Para minsanan na lang at hindi doble-gastos sa gobyerno. [This will be a] design-build-operate-and-maintain project, under the BOT Law. This will roughly have a market of one million passengers a day, for the yellow, green, and blue train lines,” Roxas said.

The DOTC chief said that a survey on current smart card technology is now being conducted about the project. Once the study is complete, the project will be put out to bid, sometime this year.

Since the ticket will have an e-banking component, Roxas said the bidder must partner with local financial institutions, telecom and technology organizations, and retail and department stores where the card can be used to purchase items and services beside train rides. — Newsbytes.ph