Metro Company to launch global tender to start digital payment of tickets

CAIRO – 28 December 2019: Egyptian Metro Company prepares to launch a global tender to select a company to implement a new digital payment system while booking tickets at subway stations.

Last week, Minister of Transport has instructed adopting a new booking method at metro stations in a bid to reduce the crowd at ticket booths and apply digital transformation in the sector.

The new booking system will depend on credit cards to cross the electronic portals at subway stations instead of paper tickets. The electronic portals will deduct the trip cost directly from the credit card without having to have a ticket.

The entry machine will set aside the maximum value for the ticket. The exit machine will calculate the actual trip value and deduct its value from the credit card.

The idea of the initiative depends on installing a "reader" on the electronic portals, to read the credit card used by the passenger and deduct the value of the trip.

Accepting all types of bank credit cards, the new system will be adopted alongside the paper tickets and smart cards, with a plan set to gradually replace the cashiers. The new system will become the only system to collect the cost of the trips beside the smart cards.
Minister of Transport Kamel el-Wazir instructed to initiate public offering procedures to choose a company from various international companies to implement the project, and supply the required software and reader devices.

The idea of the project depends on collecting the value of the ticket from the passengers’ credit cards directly, then transferring the value to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to be transferred then to the Egypt Metro Company account.