City Pass Examples

The Hong Kong Octopus Card is perhaps the most successful adoption of Smart Card technology for city use in the world. Launched in September 1997 there are now over 19 million Octopus cards in circulation. The system handles over 10 million transactions each day worth HK$90 million and there are more than 50,000 contactless Smart Card readers deployed, making their system the largest contactless card programme in the southern hemisphere. Over 2000 service providers accept the Octopus Card, 95% of the population aged 16 to 65 possess the card, and it has extended beyond public transport to carparks, fast food outlets, convenience stores, supermarkets, vending machines, pay phones, leisure facilities, schools, and in non-payment uses such as building access.

London’s Oyster Card is a contactless prepaid travel card operated by Transport for London to allow everyone to travel across the London public transport system without using cash. The card can be used on all modes of London transport including; the London Underground, trams, buses, District Light Rail (London Overground) and some National Rail services. The Oyster Card was launched in 2003 and there are now 18 million cards issued. 80% of the nearly 10 million daily train and bus journeys use an Oyster card. It is accepted by 4,000 retail outlets mainly newsagents, with 20,000 Oyster card readers deployed across the network. The Smart Card readers read and write over 10 million contactless taps per day making the Oyster Card the largest contactless card programme in the northern hemisphere.

The benefits of both the Octopus and Oyster Card programmes are multiple in terms of streamlining travel, reducing queues, minimising cash handling, reducing the possibility of fraud by customers and cash theft by staff, improving customer experiences and increasing their spend, thereby collectively growing the city economies. These cities have not only reduced the annual operating costs of their transport ticketing systems but have the added advantage of accumulating interest on the unused prepaid monies sitting in their accounts. Developments planned for the future include upgrading the terminals to read and write chip based card payments including Europay, MasterCard and Visa for card payments, and Near Field Communication for mobile payment services. The world is your Oyster with Smart Card technology!