CBA enables Adelaide commuters to pay with Visa and Mastercard

By Edil Corneille

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) announced the activation of its payment technology across the Adelaide Metro tram fleet, enabling local commuters to pay with any Visa and Mastercard debit or credit card, including digital wallet acceptance, rather than cash or metroCARD.

With the pandemic influencing people’s confidence in paying with cash, this new payment option, powered by CBA’s technology, offers Adelaide commuters another way to pay. It will be particularly convenient for those who do not have a metroCARD or do not take the tram very often.

South Australian Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Corey Wingard MP said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has really highlighted the benefits of contactless payments and the need to have more options available. We can already pay for things like groceries or dinner at a restaurant with payWave so it makes sense to expand this technology to include public transport.”

The new payment technology is part of a new pilot being operated by Adelaide Metro in partnership with Conduent, MasterCard and Visa. The pilot is stage one of an upgrade of the Adelaide Metro ticketing system to help make travel faster, easier, safer and more accessible for commuters.

CBA Group Executive for Institutional Banking & Markets Andrew Hinchliff said, “A modern payments network is the backbone of a successful economy and we’re pleased to be activating this payment method to give Adelaide’s commuters an additional contactless way to pay. We’ve seen this solution embraced by NSW commuters who have used it for over 20 million journeys since 2018, and we hope Adelaide commuters will also enjoy the speed, convenience and security that it offers.”

CBA mentioned that in 2018, it was the first Australian bank to be involved in providing a contactless technology solution for public transport. The South Australian pilot follows a successful NSW contactless technology rollout involving CBA that offered Sydney commuters an additional payment option to the Opal card – firstly for Sydney ferries and light rail in March 2018, followed by Sydney trains in November 2018, and Sydney buses in September 2019.

“It’s great to see transport authorities across the country embrace these new ways to pay and highlights the future capability of our national transport infrastructure,” Hinchliff said.

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