Le Figaro Lyon
Since June 2022, the Lyon transport network has set up a contactless payment system by credit card, called open payment, on buses, trams and metro entrances. An "intelligent" system, which calculates the number of uses (€2 per ticket) and applies the daily ceiling (€6.5) after four validations. A novelty that has found its audience since a year later, eight million trips were validated in payment by card, or one single ticket out of two sold on the network.
A success that took several years to see the light of day since it took the operator two years to install the 3500 validation terminals for an amount of 11 million euros. A modest investment in view of Sytral's overall budget of one and a half billion euros per year. "It wasn't that easy to set up but we're delighted that it works so well. We have had very few complaints," says Bruno Bernard, president of the Lyon metropolitan area and Sytral mobilités.
Towards the end of the cardboard ticket?
Eventually, it could also be envisaged that after a certain number of journeys, the system would understand that the monthly subscription rate should be applied. "The main quality of this card payment is to facilitate the use of public transport on a daily basis but also for tourists. We can even hope that it will reduce occasional fraud given the simplicity of the device, "says the elected ecologist.
However, this open payment will not replace the tickets that can still be purchased on the terminals but whose format will change "if all goes well", at the end of 2023. Soon, a single cardboard, contactless and rechargeable ticket, as already exists in Paris and Montpellier, will see the light of day in Lyon. No more book of 10, tickets will be loaded on this single title.
However, Sytral is thinking about the end of the ticket sold individually on buses. "It wastes the driver's time and creates problems of insecurity at the end of the day when they have to go out with the cash register," concludes Bruno Bernard. An experiment is already underway on the C3 bus.