City buses in Taipei and New Taipei City, as well as the Taipei MRT, would on Saturday begin accepting QR code payments from five electronic payment providers, the Taipei Department of Transportation said yesterday.
The new option would allow passengers to use the “transportation QR code” feature from EasyWallet, iPass Money, iCash Pay, Jkopay or PXPay Plus.
Passengers should open their preferred electronic payment app, select the “transportation code” — not the regular payment code — unlock it, and scan the code at ticket readers or gates, General Planning Division Director-General Liu Kuo-chu (劉國著) said.
Photo courtesy of iPass
People should move through the gate as soon as the ticket reader indicates a successful scan and the fare deduction is complete, rather than wait for confirmation on their phone app to avoid delaying others, Liu said.
Passengers must scan the code when boarding and getting off buses, or entering and exiting MRT stations, as they do with transit cards, he said.
Transfer discounts are available only when using EasyWallet, iPass Money or iCash Pay, he said.
Buses would not accept credit cards and mobile wallets such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, but the MRT is planning to accept them from July after a trial period, Liu said.
The existing system for transit cards such as EasyCard, iPass and iCash cards remains unchanged, and QR code users would also qualify for the same MRT loyalty rebates, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said.
Rebates would be credited to the payment account by the fifth of the following month, but rides paid with different providers or accounts cannot be combined for calculation, it added.
Taipei would continue to invite other payment providers, such as Line Pay, to join the system, enabling people to access major public transportation services across Taipei and New Taipei City using just their mobile phone, Liu said.
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