It appears it’s not just the ‘Pamilya Pass’ that the government has lined up for train commuters. According to the Department of Transportation, it will soon allow LRT and MRT commuters to use GCash, PayMaya, and debit and credit cards to pay fares.
Passengers can simply tap their phones or cards at the gates or turnstiles to pay their fares. Agency secretary Vince Dizon said rollout could be “mga bandang July.”
“Alam ko pati credit card puwede na. Ita-tap mo na lang ’yung phone mo. Hindi ka na kailangan bumili ng Beep card,” Dizon said. “Nagtaka nga ako bakit hindi ito kaagad na-implement, ’yun naman pala kaya i-implement kaagad-agad itong cashless options sa MRT.”
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Back at the height of the pandemic in late 2020, the government tried to enforce mandatory cashless payments specifically on the EDSA Busway, but it faced a lot of backlash from the public. At least now, once this new payment system is up, it’ll just be an option.
Also, the last time we heard about this, it was exclusively going to be available for Mastercard holders. Seeing as the DOTr didn’t specify anything, it might be safe to assume that various debit and credit cards will be accepted for fare payment this time around. In any case, this will be a huge upgrade to our public transport system—we’ll keep you posted once we get more updates on the matter.
