Transport for NSW is expanding open loop EMV bank card support on the Opal transit fare system to include buses next month in addition to implementing Opal fare caps and discounts on bank cards. The agency is encouraging transit users to move away from faster Opal cards (the woman zipping through the transit gate in the video clip 7 second mark is using an Opal card btw) to slower EMV on bank cards and smartphones that reduce in-house card operation expenses.
It’s exactly what Transport for London (TfL) has been doing for years to ween users away from Oyster. Both card fare systems are operated by Cubic, currently none of the Cubic operated transit card systems are natively hosted on Apple Pay, Chicago Ventra will be the first.
With the expansion of EMV support, Sydney should soon be joining the “Where you can use Apple Pay for transit without Express Transit mode” Apple Pay support list, with EMV Express Transit support coming sometime later.