Contactless ‘is coming’, transport chief says as she rejects criticism of delays

The National Transport Authority (NTA)’s chief executive has rejected criticism of the pace of introducing contactless public transport fares using bank cards or phones, after she told Dublin City Councillors on Monday the system would take “a couple of years” to implement.

Speaking at a sustainable travel event on Tuesday, Anne Graham said contactless payments could already be made using Leap cards. “All we haven’t got at the moment is the facility to be able to use the bank card to pay for your journey, and that is coming, but at the moment we offer a very flexible ticketing arrangements across all our services.”

The NTA was trialling was the use of card payments on Local Link rural services. However, she told councillors on Monday the ticketing equipment on Dublin Bus and other transport services in the capital and nationally were “too old” to allow trials of the system to go ahead. “We do need to have next-generation ticketing and new equipment to deal with bank cards and our current system on our bus service is too old to actually manage to deal with contactless payments.”

A contactless payment system that allows travellers to pay using their bank cards or smart devices was implemented in London in 2012, and has been rolled out in a number of other cities in Europe, the United States and beyond.

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The NTA was in the middle of procurement of a contractor who would develop a system that would allow contactless cards to be used. “Once we have that contractor appointed we will have a better idea of the timeline,” but she said it would require new infrastructure, new IT systems and would take “a couple of years” to implement.

Speaking on Tuesday Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan said he expected the procurement process would come to an end shortly, to allow the system to be developed.

“Procurement is almost completed and that equipment will be coming in. There’s always frustration about wanting something quicker and faster. My job is to make sure we do act faster.”

Feljin Jose, chairman of public transport advocacy group the Dublin Commuters Coalition, said the procurement process had already been running for more than two-and-a half years.

“In September 2020 they started procuring for the next generation ticketing contract and it still hasn’t been awarded. It has to have been one of the longest procurement processes in the history of the State.”