Kyiv became the fifth city in the world on June 19 to let MasterCard holders pay for subway rides with cards that have chips using the so-called PayPass technology.
Kyivsky Metropoliten, the city-owned company that manages Kyiv’s subway system, installed 17 turnstiles with MasterCard payment terminals, according to a June 19 company news release.
Only London, St. Petersburg, Chicago and Bucharest have such turnstiles installed.
The contactless payment method of the PayPass technology allows passengers to bypass lines to buy tokens and subway passes.
Now 17 of the busiest stations have one turnstile per station for the payment card. They include Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Khreshchatyk, Palats Sportu, Ploshcha Lva Tolstoho, Teatralna and Zoloti Vorota.
“Soon all of the turnstiles in the capital’s metro stations will accept payment by the no-touch MasterCards,” Kyivsky Metropoliten said without specifying a date.
State-owned Oshchadbank and MasterCard helped implement the project.
Vira Platonova, the general director of MasterCard Europe division in Ukraine and Moldova, said that the wireless payment technology suits perfectly places where the speed of services plays an important role. And since millions of people use Kyiv’s subway daily, this will make their ride experience easier and more comfortable.
Kyiv Post staff writer BozhenaSheremeta can be reached at [email protected]. The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by AVentures Capital, Ciklum, FISON and SoftServe.
