SmartRider continues to break new ground
6/11/2007
WA’s urban public transport system has taken another step forward as train station parking fees become payable with SmartRider.
Public Transport Authority CEO Reece Waldock said today that Transperth already was the first public transport operator in Australia to implement a smartcard-based cashless ticketing system.
“SmartRider continues to be an outstanding success with the commuting public and chalked up several usage milestones last month,” he said.
“Now we are further enhancing the level of service it offers by adding the capability of paying the all-day parking fee at our Pay ‘n’ Display station car parks,” Mr Waldock said.
“Solar-powered ticket machines with SmartRider readers – but which can also accept coins – have been installed and are online at Thornlie and Midland stations, and at Clarkson, Edgewater, Whitfords, Greenwood, Warwick and Stirling stations on the Joondalup Line.
“You simply press a button on the machine to activate the reader, and place your card on the target.
“A ticket, which must be correctly displayed on the dashboard, will be issued and a $2 fee deducted the next day.
“Because this is not a Tag On, there is no need to Tag Off when you leave.”
Mr Waldock said the SmartRider discounts (15 per cent or 25 per cent) did not extend to parking. A flat $2 was payable Monday to Friday regardless of how long you parked.
He said it was designed for public transport users – anyone using SmartRider to pay for parking must use the same card to complete a bus and/or train journey on the same day.
The service will also be available on the Mandurah Line when it opens, at Pay ‘n’ Display car parks at Mandurah, Warnbro, Rockingham, Cockburn Central, Murdoch and Bull Creek.
Last month the number of individual SmartRider cards used in a single week topped 140,000 for the first time; usage consolidated above one million weekly Tag Ons; and the SmartRider share of the total Transperth fare market reached 62 per cent, compared with the 50 per cent penetration achieved by its predecessor, MultiRider.
The card first appeared in October 2005, when a 2000-member control group began using it on a live basis, with SmartRider and MultiRider running in parallel. After being expanded in stages through last year, it became available to the general public in January. MultiRiders were withdrawn from sale in March.