Soon, the residents of Poznań and the visitors to the capital of Greater Poland Region will be able to pay cashless for public transport tickers with the Mint of Poland’s proprietary Open Payment System (OPS). Using the OPS, the fare can be paid on board the bus or tram with a contactless payment card or a smartphone with HCE or NFC technology. The contract between the city and the Mint of Poland was signed for 5 years as from the date of implementation, which is planned for the end of August 2022.

“Select, Touch & Ride” in Poznań later this year

To purchase a ticket via a OPS smart terminal operated by the Mint of Poland, the passenger needs only to select the required ticket on the screen and touch to it their payment card or smartphone with HCE or NFC technology to continue their ride. No paper ticket before boarding the vehicle is required.

During the ticket inspection, the validity of the ticket will be confirmed in the same way the purchase was made. If the ticket was paid for with a contactless card, the card needs to be touched to the ticket inspector’s reader. If the payment was made by smartphone, the purchase will be confirmed by the smartphone. At the same time the passenger has always two options to prove they have a valid ticket for the route – by touching, respectively, the card or smartphone to the ticket inspector’s reader and to the ticket validator installed on the vehicle.

Security and comfort of the Open Payment System

Using the system provided by the Mint of Poland, the passenger always has a guarantee of maximum transaction security confirmed by the PCI Data Security Standard Certificate of Compliance. Issued by Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council, the PCI DSS certificate affirms the system’s compliance with the highest industry security and data protection standards set out by the leading card payment organizations VISA and Mastercard.

For each ticket purchase transaction, OPS generates a special number – a security token – in the form of a string of characters, which authenticates the transaction during the inspection. In practice, the ticket inspector has no access to the card number or the funds on the passenger’s account. After touching the card or smartphone to the reader, the inspector receives only the confirmation that the ticket is valid.

Awarded innovations from the Mint of Poland

The Open Payment System has been twice awarded during the International Fair of Public Transport TRANSEXPO, the leading biannual industry event, in the category “Payment Collection Systems” – in 2016 and 2018.

Last October, the Mint of Poland received a medal during TRANSEXPO for its pioneering season-ticket-on-bank-card scheme. It was implemented for the first time in Bydgoszcz in September 2020.