Ticketless travel now on trams in Melbourne

[Alan Cooper]

It is now possible to pay via credit card on Melbourne trams.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-21/ticketless-travel-now-on-melbourne-trams/106821294

Melbourne is the last capital city in mainland Australia to accept credit card payments for public transport.  Trains came on line last month, buses are expected to do so next month (date unset).  Sydney has accepted credit cards on all public transport since September 2019 (according to the ever-dodgy google AI).  Most of the other capitals have done since 2024 or 2025, with only Hobart buses remaining to be done.

[TP]

Yes it was 2019 in Sydney. NSW is now extending that facility to concession card holders and pensioners who previously could only use Opal cards.

Tony P

[espee8800]

I shall stick to my Pensioner Opal card for the foreseeable future.

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cheers and best wishes,
David in Avenel.au,    
[Before you change anything, learn why it is the way it is.]

[Geoffrey Hansen]

A problem about requiring a smart card eg Myki or Opal is that it feels like needing a membership card to use public transport. 

Regards 

Geoffrey 

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[Matthew Geier]

20 years ago an operator 'smart card' was the only viable option. But since then the banking cartels have embraced contactless 'micropayments', and along modern communications infrastructure has basically made the need for a 'closed loop' operator specific 'smart card' go away.

For those that don't want the transport operator dipping into their accounts, the operator just does a co-branding deal with their major banking partner for a restricted debit card. 

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[Hal Cain]

On Tue, Jun 23, 2026 at 2:49 PM 'Matthew Geier' via TramsDownUnder <tramsdo...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

For those that don't want the transport operator dipping into their accounts, the operator just does a co-branding deal with their major banking partner for a restricted debit card. 

The system also has to accomodate those who now use child, senior and periodical cards, which it doesn't yet do.

Hal Cain, still enjoying free bus travel in Hobart

[Matthew Geier]

On 23/6/26 17:16, Hal Cain wrote:

On Tue, Jun 23, 2026 at 2:49 PM 'Matthew Geier' via TramsDownUnder <tramsdo...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

For those that don't want the transport operator dipping into their accounts, the operator just does a co-branding deal with their major banking partner for a restricted debit card. 

The system also has to accomodate those who now use child, senior and periodical cards, which it doesn't yet do.

That's what the co-branded card is for. The fare charged is worked out by the back end. The card is simply an identifier, not much different from those HID fob keys. All the system reads at the gate is the card serial number, the magic happens at the back-end - but the upshot will be that even the card issued to a child, will technically be a banking debit card, it will just have restrictions on it's use baked in.

Closed-loop smart card systems are dead as a transit technology. They were created as they needed to work off line and stored the transit balance on the card. Communications and other associated transaction technology have changed a lot and 'near line' operation (mobile comms for buses, etc) is good enough. No need to build a system that works completely offline now and as new systems come on line and existing ones a re-engineered, support for the close-loop technology will go away, it's layer of complexity that they don't need anymore.