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16/09/2010 -
In major cities, plastic contactless cards are a normal sight when paying for public transit fares. However, one metropolitan hub is attempting to swap these cards for traditional credit and debit cards.Toronto is currently accepting bids from major financial institutions for the rights to produce and process these new contactless cards, which the city says will increase payment security for travelers.
Bidders include six of Canada's leading banks such as Quebec's Caisse Desjardins, Visa, MasterCard, Hewlett-Packard, Siemens and IBM. The technology would allow customers to use not only cards to make payments, but mobile phones as well.
While other North American cities such as New York City and Chicago have considered moving to such technology, Toronto would be the first to fully implement such a system.
Transit improvements are coming at a key time - a recent survey found that Toronto commuters are more frustrated than residents of New York, Los Angeles and Ontario.
