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Fourth company joins Sydney smartcard consortium

The consortium responsible for bringing together Sydney’s public transport smartcard venture keeps growing, with a fourth company to take care of card top ups

October 14, 2010

The NSW Government has chosen ‘epay’, a global prepaid mobile phone transaction service provider to install and run the retail side of Sydney’s much-awaited smartcard system.

The inclusion of epay to look after the electronic payment component of the smartcard roll-out across Sydney’s bus, rail and ferry network means it will be the fourth company involved in the smartcard ticketing venture, joining Cubic, Downer EDI and the Commonwealth Bank.

Together they form the Pearl Consortium, the successful bidder for Sydney’s version of London’s highly successful Oyster Card.

The new ticketing system’s development is being supervised by the New South Wales Government’s Public Transport Ticketing Corporation (PTTC).

“The company (epay) brings to the Pearl Consortium a strong retail payments network, proven experience in high volume transaction processing and relevant transport industry experience,” epay Australia and New Zealand Managing Director Grant Sheppard says.

He says through the epay system the public will be able to top up smartcards at about 2,000 outlets across Sydney when the system is up and active.

“Locations will include convenience stores, supermarkets, newsagents and petrol stations in the greater Sydney area,” Sheppard says.

The company already has some Australian transport-related experience as a provider of electronic payment transaction services with south-east Queensland’s toll road network.

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