Smart Ticketing & Contactless Payments on Tasmanian Public Transport

Tasmanian public transport is getting smart ticketing including contactless payments with mobile phones & credit cards, the Tasmanian state government announced in September 2024.

What is smart ticketing?

Smart ticketing automatically calculates your fare based on where you get on and get off the bus or ferry. It doesn’t require you or the driver to work out the fare. Nor does it just charge a default fare like the Green Card.

It will also support transfers between different buses (including between different operators) and between buses and ferries.

You’ll need to both tap on and tap off on every time you use a bus or ferry.

How will I be able to pay?

Smart ticketing will support contactless payments — those made by tapping any of:

Mobile phones & smart watches — with digital wallets like Apple Pay or Google Wallet.
Credit or debit cards — Visa, Mastercard & American Express.

Four arms reaching towards a contactless payment device. One arm is holding a mobile phone, another wears a smartwatch, a third holds a MasterCard card, the fourth holds an American Express card. — Contactless payment options. (Image Translink).

You’ll also be able to pay using:

A pre-loaded public transport smart card.
Digital pre-purchased tickets that can be scanned on your phone or printed at home.
Something called “cash”.

Which services will have smart ticketing?

Smart ticketing will be available Tasmania–wide on:

Standard bus services — including those operated by Metro Tasmania, Tassielink, Kinetic, Manions Coaches & Calow’s Coaches — but not school buses.
Derwent Ferry services.

A Metro Tasmania bus leaving a bus stop in the Hobart Bus mall. The Hobart General Post Office is in the background.

A ferry on the Derwent River with the Hobart city and kunanyi / Mount Wellington in the background.

Where are contactless payments already being used in Australia?

Contactless payments for tickets on public transport is becoming more common around Australia:

SkyBus has offered contactless payments on their Hobart Airport buses since late 2023.
Public transport in NSW has had contactless payments since 2019. It uses the same Cubic technology that Tasmania will use.
Public transport in Queensland is in the process of rolling out contactless payments now. In fact, Tasmania is leveraging the Queensland project for its own rollout.

When is smart ticketing coming?

On-road testing on selected routes in northern Tasmania from late 2025.
Staged roll out from early 2026.

Our thoughts

The government has been promising smart ticketing for a while so it’s great it’s finally on the way.
Being able to easily transfer between services and operators will enable flexible multimodal trips, for example catching a bus to the ferry.
Tapping a phone or watch and the fare being automatically calculated will make using public transport that much more seamless. You also won’t need to remember your Green Card. (And real-time tracking is coming soon too!) These may all seem like relatively small things but they definitely improve the overall experience of public transport and the result will be more people using it more often.
However, these benefits won’t be enough if the services aren’t frequent, reliable and efficient. Bring on more ferries and bus rapid transit asap.