Three months ago Kyiv became only the fifth city in the world to launch contactless payments at turnstiles in the city’s subway system after London, St. Petersburg, Chicago and Bucharest.
Starting June 19, 2015, passengers of the Kyiv metro could pay fares using their MasterCard contactless cards or devices while passing through the turnstile.
Contactless payments are now available at the 17 stations at Kyiv subway (out of 52 in total), and the plan is to equip all Kiev Subway stations with contactless terminals by the end of the year.
1,500 daily contactless transactions
Now the first data from the subway system has been revealed. More than 20,000 subway rides have been paid using contactless cards and devices in Kyiv Subway to date.
About 1,500 contactless transactions are made daily, and the number is still growing. Cardholders from 19 countries have taken the opportunity to pay for subway rides using their cards and devices with MasterCard Contactless technology.
“Millions of people in Kyiv take the subway each day, and the possibility of using their MasterCard contactless cards for subway rides will make their trips faster and more comfortable,” said Vira Platonova, Country Manager of the MasterCard Europe representative office in Ukraine and Moldova.
Still a way to go
The Kyiv subway system has still some way to go when one looks at the contactless infrastructures of the other cities, London in particular.
In London, each day there are about 375,000 contactless journeys on Tube and Rail services and 250,000 on London Buses. One in ten contactless transactions in the UK are made on TfL’s services, making TfL one of the largest contactless merchants worldwide.
“Implementing contactless payments will also help both the Kyiv Subway and the Kyiv Municipal State Administration to optimize operating costs and to create a fare payment system integrating different modes of transport in the future. We are happy to have partners who are willing to adopt such innovative solution,” added Vira Platonova.
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