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Legacy payment schemes 'inadequate for mass transit'
23 Mar 2010

Contactless smart cards are a better fit for transit systems than the use of legacy payment schemes, an industry expert has claimed.

Writing on contactlessnews.com, Conrad Sheehan, chief executive officer of a US payment provider, said that legacy payment schemes such as Visa and MasterCard are unsuitable for mass transit payment.

He suggests that payment schemes of this type would slow commuter traffic and are inaccessible to many.

As an alternative, the executive pointed to the use of contactless smart cards on the transit systems of London and Hong Kong. He could equally have highlighted sQuidcard's implementation of successful transit payment systems in much of the north-west of England and in Scotland.

In an article on the site, Sheehan wrote of London and Hong Kong's transit payment systems: "Both systems are built around contactless fare media and make card acquisition and reloading convenient. Both systems can be used on multiple modes of transportation."

Sheehan refers to Hong Kong commuters' ability to pay for low value goods with their contactless transit cards, a function currently unavailable with the Oyster card in London.

sQuidcard,however, facilitate small value payments at participating retail outlets across the UK.