Victorians will finally be able to tap onto trains with smartphones, credit cards from next year

Victorians will be able to pay for public transport using their bank cards and smartphones from next year.

The state government revealed the long-awaited change on Friday, saying it would be a staggered rollout beginning with the rail network in early 2026.

Gabrielle Williams said the staggered rollout would begin next year.Credit: Wayne Taylor

More than 20,000 new myki readers are expected to be installed at metropolitan and V/Line stations over the coming months before the tap and go function goes online.

The switch to allow customers to pay using their bank cards, phones and smartwatches would then be gradually rolled out across the entire public transport network, with changes to the bus and tram network to follow rail.

The move followed what the government said was a “successful” start to a contactless payment trial on buses in Wangaratta, in Victoria’s north-east, and would begin with the rail network because of commuters’ heavy reliance on it, Public and Active Transport Minister Gabrielle Williams said.

“As a part our new ticketing system contract we have provided for the replacement and roll out of new ticketing readers,” Williams told reporters on Friday.

“That doesn’t require us to replace all the surrounding infrastructure at the metro tunnel stations … we simply just have to swap out the readers themselves.”

Only full-fare adult tickets would be able to be charged to bank cards and devices at the start of the rollout, before the project was scaled up to include account-based fares, Williams said.

She stressed the system upgrade would be careful, considered and incremental, and include extensive technical testing.

“This represents a pretty big change to our ticketing system here in Victoria, a very significant upgrade, and a very significant increase in offering for Victorian commuters,” Williams said.

More than 20,000 new myki readers are to be installed at train stations this year, the government says.Credit: Scott McNaughton

The tap and go bus trial in Wangaratta began on four routes in November. Since then, about eight in 10 full-fare passengers have opted to use contactless payments rather than cash and paper tickets, the government said.

Android phone users can currently pay for public transport using their phones but only through a downloadable myki card, rather than with their bank card.

Victoria’s public transport ticketing system has been marred by significant delays, cost blowouts and contract troubles long before the government in 2023 signed a $1.7 billion deal to overhaul it.

In 2004, Steve Bracks’ Labor government first committed to bringing in smartcard ticketing for the state’s trains, trams and buses, at a cost of just under $1 billion. The Bracks government promised the system would be up and running by 2007, consigning paper Metcards to history.

It ultimately took another seven years for myki to become fully operational, and cost the state about 55 per cent more – $1.55 billion – to roll it out.

Deficiencies in the original contract were largely to blame for the government’s failure to deliver myki anywhere near on budget or on time, the auditor-general said.

Despite the system’s many troubles, myki’s operator, NTT Data, won a $690 million, seven-year contract extension in 2016, beating out rivals who operated more advanced ticketing systems in cities such as Sydney and London.

It wasn’t until that contract expired in 2023 that the government finally made the call to cut myki loose and award Conduent a $1.7 billion, 15-year contract to take over the ticketing system.

Last year, the company came to loggerheads with the government over the terms of the agreement, arguing the cost and complexity of introducing a new ticketing system was greater than what the parties first agreed to.

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