Qld gov smart ticketing rollout expands

The Queensland government’s public transport ticketing rollout has expanded out to Cleveland in the south-east, with commuters gaining access from the end of November.

From Wednesday this week, commuters travelling between Central station and Cleveland station will be able to use the new service under the state government's $371 million project, run in partnership with Cubic Transportation Systems.

The state government first began the smart ticketing’system on the Gold Coast light rail network in December 2020, allowing users to pay with their credit or debit cards and smart devices.

Member for Lytton Joan Pease said she is “looking forward to seeing the rollout extend onto our local buses”, set to take place in the new year.

“This will be a big job – replacing about 1300 fixed devices and 12,000 onboard readers to bring 18 different payment systems across the regional bus network together under one smart ticketing umbrella," Pease said.

The government is working towards accepting concession card holders through the system.

The service is operating along the Ferny Grove, Ipswich/Rosewood, Springfield Central, Sunshine Coast/Caboolture, Redcliffe Peninsula, Doomben and Shorncliffe train lines.

Next steps are expansion to the Airport, Beenleigh, and Gold Coast train lines, connecting customers to the Gold Coast light rail right through to the Brisbane CBD.

So far 180 smart ticketing gates have been installed across all 18 Queensland Rail gated stations in South East Queensland.