Coming off of the success of their contactless car rental system, the city of Cardiff, Wales is launching a contactless fare system for the city’s network of buses. Instead of carrying cash, bus passengers can instead pay for transit fares using a contactless smart card.

The contactless fare cards can be used to store single rides, monthly passes and even cash. Passengers are granted access to the bus by swiping their card in front of a card reader. The amount of the fare is then deducted from the balance on the card. The contactless transit passes are rechargeable and more tickets, passes, or cash may be loaded onto the balance of the card at any time.
So far the city is only planning on using the card for bus services, but may eventually expand the program to other forms of public transit across the city. City officials hope that in implementing the program, the convenience of the new contactless system will encourage more people to start using public transit.