Vic govt uses Google Pay to take myki cardless

Victorian commuters will be able to ditch their physical myki smartcard for an Android smartphone later this week to pay for public transport across the ticketing network.

Minister for Public Transport Melissa Horne said the state's cardless myki scheme would become available to all Victorians from Thursday, following a series of tests over the past eight months.

Mobile Myki allows commuters to purchase a myki, top up, and tap on and off at all existing Myki ticket gates and readers across metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria using their Android smartphone.

It will also allow commuters to view their travel history and get a real-time balance.

The mobile ticketing option will be available for commuters travelling on full, concession, child and senior fares and using both myki Money and myki pass, in addition to the existing physical myki card,

But instead of using a dedicated payments app, as announced by the government last year, Mobile myki will use the Google Pay app.

It also leverages near field communications (NFC) technology on Android smartphones, avoiding the need for any new infrastructure or equipment to be built.

The system has been developed in partnership with NTT Data - which holds the $700 million contract for the state’s ticketing system - and Google.

The government said it was continuing discussions and technical assessments of other smartphone platforms, but had no timeframe for when Mobile myki would become available.

As many as 4000 commuters took part in the most recent trial of the cardless scheme following an earlier trial with a limited, industry-based test group of users.

The trials showed that an “overwhelming majority of trial participants were highly likely to recommend Mobile myki to friends or colleagues,” the government said.

It received a score of “80 out of 100 for overall satisfaction”.