LRT-2 fare system goes cashless

MANILA, Philippines — Commuters can now pay for trips across all 13 stations of the Light Rail Transit Line 2 (LRT-2) using contactless bank cards, mobile wallets or GCash QR as the government launched yesterday a digital fare system that could be expanded to major transit lines nationwide.

The proof-of-concept project, launched by the Department of Transportation, Light Rail Transit Authority and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC), allows passengers to use Visa or Mastercard debit, credit and prepaid cards at designated fast lane gates at the LRT-2.

The system also supports near field communication-enabled mobile wallets such as Google Pay, eliminating the need to purchase or reload a separate transit card.

The platform is expected to serve more than 160,000 LRT-2 passengers daily, equivalent to over 58.7 million commuters per year.

Visa estimates that open-loop contactless payment systems can increase public transport ridership by as much as 10 percent.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor Mamerto Tangonan said the pilot would produce “the data, the lessons and the confidence we need to scale.”

RCBC is offering a P1 fare cashback promotion from July 13 to 31. Eligible RCBC cardholders will initially be charged the regular fare, after which cashback will reduce the cost to P1 per ride.

The government is also targeting the rollout of the contactless fare payment system on LRT-1 this year.

Technical preparations for the LRT-1 are being finalized, with the system expected to be launched soon.