Transport Minister Anthony Loke revealed that Rapid KL’s My50 unlimited ride pass will soon be migrated from MyKad to other alternative payment methods. He said that new payment methods which are being planned by stakeholders include the use of Touch ‘n Go (TNG) cards.
The minister said the transition to new payment options is aimed at revolutionising the digital system of the country’s public transport. The decision to switch payments was made based on feedback that MyKad was inconvenient for public transport use as there are fears that their national identification card might get misplaced.
He said once the system integration is complete, users will be able to use their TNG card or smartphones via a QR code.
Last month, the minister revealed that My50 pass users will soon be able to renew their monthly pass via TNG eWallet and the integration is expected to take a few months. The eWallet integration was aimed at reducing the need to queue at the counter.
However, there’s still a huge question mark on the implementation of an open payment system for Rapid KL train and bus lines. The new payment system was meant to break Touch ‘n Go’s monopoly by allowing commuters to pay for their rides using their credit and debit cards.
The open payment system for public transport was announced as early as March 2023 and was later revealed that the implementation was supposed to start this year.
According to the previous timeline, 50% of the gantries for each station are expected to support credit and debit card payments by February 2025, while the remaining gantries will support the new payment options by August 2025.
Besides payment cards, the minister also mentions QR acceptance for public transport payments. It is worth highlighting that TNG eWallet rolled out QR Transit as a beta trial in 2018 for selected stations, however, it was never adopted widely.
The My50 pass provides Malaysian commuters unlimited rides on RapidKL’s LRT, MRT, Monorail and BRT services, as well as RapidKL’s bus and MRT feeder buses in the Klang Valley for a subsidised price of RM50 per month. It was reported that there are currently 220,000 monthly users.
Since the My50 pass is only offered for Malaysians only, the upcoming payment channels would likely require an eKYC process to verify if a cardholder or eWallet user is eligible for the My50 pass. This may include the use of MyDigital ID for verification.
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