Changwon Special City Fully Implements Contactless Fare Payment System for Changwon City Buses

S-BRT Operation Route Starting Late June
Nation's First City and Village Bus Payment System Introduced

Changwon Special City in Gyeongnam announced on the 2nd that it has signed a business agreement with Mybi, the operator of Changwon City's transportation card system, to establish and operate the 'Changwon City Tagless System,' introducing the nation's first contactless (Tagless) fare payment system for all city and village buses within a single local government.

Transportation and Construction Bureau Briefing.

The Tagless system is a next-generation public transportation fare payment system, also called the Hi-Pass of public transportation, where fares are automatically charged upon boarding without passengers having to touch a transportation card or smartphone to the card reader when getting on or off city buses. The system also automatically applies transfers until the passenger alights.

The city plans to install terminals for operating the Tagless system in May and, after a preliminary inspection, will first introduce it by the end of June on 339 buses across 45 city bus routes passing through the Wonidaro S-BRT section. By the end of the year, the system will be sequentially implemented on all 770 city and village buses.

With the introduction of the Tagless system, the city aims to apply IT technology to public transportation fare payment, improving passenger boarding and alighting convenience in the short term through the Wonidaro S-BRT construction, and in the long term, laying the foundation for the integrated transportation service (maas) concept. As the number of Tagless users increases, it will also become easier for the city to obtain accurate departure and arrival information of passengers, which can be utilized as big data for transportation policy.

In the second half of the year, along with the full-scale introduction of the Tagless system, the bus location information, which was previously provided at 60-second intervals, will be shortened to 3-second intervals, greatly enhancing the accuracy of bus arrival information through an ultra-precise bus service. From the passengers' perspective, a function to check bus movements in real time will also be provided, significantly improving the convenience for passengers using city buses.

Je Jong-nam, Director of the Transportation and Construction Bureau, stated, “Our city is striving to secure a service level equivalent to urban rail for city buses as a single public transportation mode,” and added, “By establishing the physical infrastructure through the Wonidaro S-BRT construction, we are fundamentally improving city bus operation conditions and continuously promoting policies to enhance public transportation convenience for Changwon citizens, such as the Tagless system and ultra-precise services.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.