Greek chorus welcomes contactless payment on Athens metro

Buses, trolleybuses, metro and trams join airport express in Tap2ride programme
By Adam Hill January 22, 2025 Read time: 2 mins
Riders can now tap and go across Athens (image: Oasa)

Riders on public transport in Athens, Greece, can now make contactless payments for their journey.

The new 'Tap2ride' service on Athens Urban Transport Organisation (Oasa) covers buses, trolleybuses, metro and trams - it has been available since April 2024 on Athens' airport express bus lines.

Oasa has worked with Hellas Smart Ticket, LG CNS, Visa and NBG Pay to develop contactless on the Greek capital's urban transport network.

Customers will still be able to use an Ath.Ena ticket or Ath.Ena card but will now be able to swipe their bank card (debit, credit or pre-paid) or smart device over on-board validators as well.

Daily maximum charge is equal to the cost of a daily ticket - €4.10 - regardless of the number of journeys taken.

Travel to and from the airport costs €5.50 by bus and €9 via the metro.

Christos Staikouras, minister of infrastructure and transport, says: "The payment of fares via bank card in urban transport is one of the 10 priorities we set in the government's programme statements."

The government believes that contactless payment facilitates travel, as passengers do not have to look for ticket machines or kiosks, or wait in queues - and, perhaps most importantly, they don't need to know what ticket to get: they simply tap their card.

Upgrading urban transport improves the passenger experience and contributes to the development of smart cities, Oasa suggests, promoting smart mobility and helping citizens and visitors to move around Athens, thus increasing the revenue of transport operators.

Mass Transit & MaaS

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Switching Atlanta onto MaaS
    May 9, 2019
    It’s easy to talk about MaaS in the abstract – but MaaS isn’t going to work if it’s just a theory. Colin Sowman speaks to one woman about the practical benefits - and difficulties - of getting out of her car and switching to public transit in Atlanta, Georgia One of the first goals of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) inventor Sampo Hietanen is that MaaS should persuade households they don’t need a second car. This is starting to happen - even in the car-dominated US. Last year, authorities in the state of Ge
    Read More
  • Cash injection to deliver smart card technology to UK rail passengers
    September 2, 2013
    The UK government is investing US$4.4 million into a trial of paperless ticketing as it starts its multi-million pound push to deliver smart card technology to rail passengers across the south east, Transport Minister Norman Baker has announced. Train operator c2c, which operates between London and the Essex coast, will upgrade ticketing systems at all of its stations outside London, paving the way for passengers to start using smart cards in the region. This will be rolled out on services outside London fr
    Read More
  • Fabulos robo-buses hit European streets
    June 5, 2020
    EU-backed AV scheme aims to solve urban first-/last-mile problems
    Read More
  • Gate latching ensures customers pay metro fares
    July 3, 2013
    Fare accountability, improved passenger data and efficiency are all expected to improve since gate latching began in the TAP universal payment system designed and integrated by Cubic Transportation Systems for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro). The aim is to help ensure customers use their TA car to pay fares. Gate latching ushers in a new era of partnership between LA Metro with Metrolink and its municipal operators to create a seamless regional transit network bound by
    Read More

Highlighted Content