Efforts to streamline the various payment systems across Taiwan’s public transport operations may see progress as the country’s government pushes interoperability among locally issued smartcards.
In an initiative announced in September, infrastructure changes will soon enable riders from various Taiwan cities to use their existing smartcards on Taipei’s Mass Rapid Transit network a spokesperson for Taiwan’s Ministry of Transport and Communications spokesperson tells PaymentsSource.
Taipei’s rapid-transit system riders currently have the option of using their EasyCard smartcards to pay fares. The new plan calls for Taipei’s rail operator to install new card readers that are equipped to accept smartcards from other regions’ rail and bus networks alongside the existing EasyCard readers.
“New card readers would be installed at the same locations (in Taipei) as the existing card readers,” the spokesperson says, adding that the installation will be complete by the end of this year.
The various smartcards Taipei’s rapid-transit stations will be able to accept include the Taiwan Smart Card, which is used to pay fares on public buses that run in the cities of Taoyuan and Chiayi, and the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit smartcard, used on rail and bus lines in the city of Kaohsiung.
A total of 104 ticket gates across the 89 stations within the Taipei Mass Rapid Transit system would be equipped with additional card readers by yearend, according to the spokesperson.
There are 23 million EasyCards, 2.1 million Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit cards and 1.6 million Taiwan Smart Cards in circulation in the country as of the end of August, according to the transport ministry.
Taiwan early this year introduced multicard readers on Taipei’s bus network (
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