Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has received a roasting after she proudly announced that Victorians would be able to pay for public transport with bank cards or their phones – in 2026.
Victoria lags far behind other states when it comes to ticketless travel, with commuters unable to pay for trips on buses, trams and trains via a credit card or phone at the turnstiles.
Instead they must buy a myki card and top it up.
Yet the inflexible system is all set to change next year, with the Victorian Premier sharing the announcement on X on Friday night.
‘By early next year, you’ll be able to touch-on with your iPhone or even a bank card,’ Ms Allan she said.
But the Labor leader’s post was inundated with sarcastic comments.
3AW news reader Tony Tardio joked that he suspected ‘the premier thinks she has discovered the wheel’.
‘Who would like the privilege of telling her Sydney has been doing it for a decade?’, he asked.
Another said: ‘Is this woman serious? Someone please tell Jacinta Allan that she’s 10 years and a few billion dollars late.’
One suggested that she should have ‘just sent out a quiet email on this’.
‘It’s embarrassing to admit these features were not in place already, and still won’t be till next year,’ they added.
A fourth joked: ‘2014 called – It wants its tech back.’
The new transport payment method will gradually roll out in 2026, with train passengers the first to be offered the choice to ditch their mykis, Transport Infrastructure Minister Gabrielle Williams announced on Friday.
About 70 per cent of Victorian communities use the rail network, Ms Williams said.
More than 22,000 myki readers will be replaced across the network, but only the readers themselves will need to be swapped with surrounding ticketing infrastructures to remain.
The cost of replacing the old readers is within a $1.7 billion contract awarded to New Jersey-based company Conduent to overhaul and operate the system for the next 15 years.
‘We’re taking a very considered and cautious approach to how we do this roll out, because we know that we need to both build this new system and keep the current system operating so that we’re not unnecessarily disrupting commuters in their day-to-day travels through our city and state,’ Ms Williams said.
The move comes after the government branded a trial of ticketless bus travel in the regional Victorian town of Wangaratta a success.
Full fare passengers will initially be able to access the new payment method as the government works to expand it to other fare types.
Opposition public transport spokesman Matthew Guy said the Labor government is likely to botch the rollout, citing its history of broken promises when it came to public transport upgrades.
‘With that kind of track record, it’s hard to see this latest announcement – made under pressure – as anything more than another promise that will fail to materialise,’ he said.
The state’s $13.48 billion Metro Tunnel is expected to open in late 2025, but technology to allow commuters to touch on and off with their bank cards or any smartphone won’t be ready in time.
myki ticket readers across the tunnel’s five new stations will be ripped out and replaced when the state updates the system.
Android users have been able to load a myki card onto their devices to touch on and off, but the option isn’t available to Apple users.
NSW’s Opal system has allowed passengers to tap on and off with their bank card or their phone since it rolled out across the network in 2019.
Ticketless travel is available on most of Queensland’s network with an expansion continuing for certain buses in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.