Bon voyage from Flowbird as Clermont-Ferrand opens up

Open payment system in French university city has attracted 100,000 transactions so far
By Adam Hill March 20, 2023 Read time: 1 min
Tap-to pay system is used on buses and trams in Clermont-Ferrand

Clermont-Ferrand has become the latest French city to move to open payments on public transport.

Flowbird, in partnership with the Syndicat Mixte des Transports en Commun de l'Agglomération Clermontoise (SMTC-AC), has deployed a tap-to-pay system on buses and trams which, the firm says, has now passed 100,000 transactions.

The university city in south-central France, has a population of just 141,000.

“Numbers of passengers using the system is steadily increasing,” said Nicolas Dardonville, Flowbird’s ticketing sales director.

“As we’ve seen in Amiens and Monaco, growth in adoption escalates as more passengers experience the ease of using their contactless bank card or smartphone as their ticket. No queuing for tickets and fast boarding are big wins.”
 
François Rage, CEO at SMTC-AC, says: “It is part of our goal to make travelling easier so that using our public transport system is even more attractive."

Speeding up boarding and journey times supports Clermont-Ferrand's drive to get more people using public transport instead of private cars.
 
Flowbird says it has nine live deployments to date: in France, Canada, the UK and Australia, including a national roll-out in Northern Ireland.

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