MANILA — The payment of fares using beep cards by passengers of Light Rail Transit (LRT) Lines 1 and 2, as well as the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) has reached the one billion mark this month.
Of this number, 56 percent were beep card transactions while 44 percent were cash through single journey tickets, based on data from its operator AF Payments, Inc.
“Reaching this milestone is a testament that we were able to create a robust and dependable payment solution for mass transit that has brought convenience to millions of the city’s rail riders over the last three years,” Peter Maher, President and CEO of AF Payments, said in a statement Friday.
The company added that more than 5 million beep cards have been sold to commuters.
AF Payments, which is a consortium of Ayala Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp., won the permit to operate an automated fare collection system as a Public-Private Partnership project in 2013.
The beep card was made available to passengers of LRT-1, LRT-2 and MRT in 2015.
The contactless smart card with a stored value of up to PHP10,000 can also be used in selected bus lines, CAVITEX and at Family Mart through the tap-to-pay system. (Aerol John Pateña/PNA)
