The Department of Transportation and Communications’ (DOTC) first Public-Private Partnership Project, the Contactless Automated Fare Collection System (AFCS), has reached Full Systems Acceptance (FSA), marking the end of the trial period.
“We have reached another milestone through the roll-out of a modern, unified ticketing system. We have been informed that we are the fastest in the world to achieve FSA, which means the system passed the standards and requirements we have set. This is certainly the fruit of the hard work of DOTC, LRTA and MRT-3 personnel, in coordination with AF Payments, Inc. (AFPI),” said DOTC Secretary Jun Abaya. “Furthermore, we are the only ones with an AFC System wherein the government is paid instead of us paying a subsidy. We are proud of this achievement,” added Abaya.
The tap-and-go ticketing scheme was made available as early as July for LRT-2, August for LRT-1 and October for MRT-3. The limited public trial aimed to address glitches in the system, including the contactless beep card, station computers, gates, and vending machines.
The testing period also gave the public a chance to transition smoothly to the new ticketing system which uses only one card for all three (3) lines, cutting queuing time and allowing seamless transfers from one rail line to another.
As of December 14, there have been a total of 1,063,022 beep cards sold. The vision is for the stored value cards to be eventually used in other modes of public transportation such as buses and may be reloaded in convenience stores. (DOTC)
