BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 5. Visa has announced that it has reached the one billion contactless transaction milestone in public transport for the first time in one year, Trend reports via Visa's Azerbaijani representative office.
Europe accounts for the largest share of these transactions, including more than four million per day for the Transport for London system alone. There is also growth in every single region, and in North America, about one in five payments in public transport is contactless.
Visa launched a technology for contactless fare payment in commuter trains in Baku at 14 stations of Absheron Ring Railway in 2021.
"Passengers of this route can pay for the trip with a contactless bank card or devices with a built-in NFC module: smartphones or smart watches. The project was implemented jointly with Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, the International Bank of Azerbaijan, and with the support of RBC Group, IBA Group, and Azericard," Visa said.
Visa also noted that the rapid growth of digital payments is proof of how attractive this payment option has become for consumers.
“In addition to being convenient and flexible for customers, contactless payment technology has proven a return on investment for transport companies. Visa is working with city halls, urbanists, city transport departments, operators and solution providers to rethink the urban travel experience with a focus on inclusiveness, sustainability, and connectivity in multimodal transport," Visa said.
The recent Visa Future of Urban Mobility Survey showed that 91 percent of passengers look forward to contactless payment in public transport, and almost a third named contactless payments as the top feature that will encourage them to use public transport.
According to the same study, the majority of public transport passengers, or 88 percent, say that environmental friendliness affects how often they use public transport. At the same time, the majority of employed passengers, or 62 percent, use public transport at least three days a week.