After 4 years of operation, the payment system of the Cat Linh - Ha Dong urban railway has become outdated. Meanwhile, Metro Line 3, Nhon - Hanoi Railway Station section (Metro 3.1) is still using the old design from more than 10 years ago, passengers have to put cash into the machine and receive coins to pass through the gate.

To innovate payment methods and facilitate passengers, the operator is testing a new electronic payment system for the Cat Linh - Ha Dong elevated railway, allowing passengers to use their ID cards, visa cards or QR codes to pass through the ticket gate.

This information was given by Mr. Khuat Viet Hung, Chairman of the Board of Members of Hanoi Railway One Member Co., Ltd., at the workshop "One touch, ten thousand trusts - creating the future of digital payment" organized by Tien Phong Newspaper in collaboration with Napas on the morning of October 7.

According to Mr. Hung, this is an important step in the roadmap to modernize Hanoi's public transport, towards a cashless train experience.

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Mr. Khuat Viet Hung: Paying for Cat Linh - Ha Dong train tickets only takes 0.2 seconds. Photo: Viet Linh

This upgrade is part of a coordination plan between Hanoi City Police, the Department of Construction, the City People's Committee with technological and financial support from Visa and partner banks.

To date, the cache system has been completed and is operating stably at all 12 stations on the Cat Linh - Ha Dong line. The new ticket gates are integrated with multi-function readers, which can recognize and process all types of cards - from chip-based ID cards to international payment cards.

"Initial testing shows that the processing speed is very fast: the first ID scan only takes 1 second, the following times are reduced to 0.2 seconds," said Mr. Khuat Viet Hung.

In parallel with the hardware, the Hanoi Metro application was also developed, allowing passengers to buy tickets online and choose two usage modes: “Non-identification” for single tickets and “identification” for daily, weekly or monthly tickets.

This is an expansion from hardware to a digital platform, allowing passengers to experience payment and ticket control completely online.

With identification mode, the system will recognize passengers' faces through cameras at the gate, comparing them with data on citizen identification cards to increase security and safety.

Mr. Khuat Viet Hung said the project is in the process of completing procedures, waiting for the People's Committee and the Department of Construction to approve the ticket checking process. It is expected that by the end of this year, 148 new gates will be installed on the entire Cat Linh - Ha Dong route, ready to serve passengers.

After the end of the Metro Line 3.1 system warranty contract next December, this smart payment technology will be expanded to new routes.

“In the long term, the system is designed to be able to connect between metro and bus routes, and even connect with the national ticket booking platform on the VNeID application of the Ministry of Public Security ,” Mr. Hung informed.

The combination of public transport and digital payment infrastructure is expected to create a major shift in people's travel habits, reducing cash use, increasing convenience, transparency and safety - towards the goal of building Hanoi into a smart city in the near future.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/mat-0-2-giay-de-thanh-toan-ve-tau-cat-linh-ha-dong-2449980.html