AF group goes for contactless smart cards

MANILA, Philippines—The AF Consortium of Metro Pacific and the Ayala group, which bagged the P1.72-billion automated collection fare system (ACFS) project for Metro Manila’s light railway transit system, plans to institutionalize contactless smart card technology in the metropolis.

Apart from implementing a “seamless” interconnection for one million daily LRT commuters starting the third quarter of 2015, the consortium expects to expand the system to other modes of transportation, such as buses and toll roads.

The AF consortium likewise has the option to extend the contactless card system to other businesses outside of the transportation sector, such as in retail, parking, and security applications, the Ayala and Metro Pacific groups said in a joint statement posted on the web on Monday.

The AFCS project, patterned after mass rail transport payment systems in developed countries, such as Singapore’s EZ Link Card, will upgrade the Light Rail Transit and Metro Rail Transit ticketing system by substantially speeding up payments, reducing queuing time and allowing passengers seamless transfers from one rail line to another.

The new smart card ticketing system will replace the obsolete magnetic stripe ticketing system currently used with more powerful chip-based version. It can also serve as an electronic micropayment solution in day-to-day payments, or as identifier for loyalty schemes, facility access and location-based services.

“Under the project, the AF Consortium will form a team of technical design and software development experts to work on the new smart card-based ticketing system, (which will become) available for use by train commuters in the third quarter of 2015,” according to the joint statement.

The AF consortium of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Ayala Corp., composed of AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., BPI Card Finance Corporation, Globe Telecom, Inc., Meralco Financial Services Corporation, MPIC and Smart Communications Inc., received by electronic mail a copy of the notice of award of the ACFS project after close of business hours on Jan. 30.

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) declared the consortium as the winning bidder. The awarding was delayed by a protest lodged by rival SM group.

The winning consortium has a strong track record and experience in operating banking and payments, water, utilities, retail, healthcare, telecommunications and toll road businesses. AF has teamed up with MSI Global, a respected world-class rail, transport and retail payments provider using similar technology, for this project.

“We are pleased to help in modernizing our rail transport system and ease the burden of millions of commuters who use our train systems daily,” MPIC chair, Manuel V. Pangilinan said. “We believe our strategic alliance with Ayala will result in an efficient, convenient and integrated light transit system network similar to our neighboring Asian nations.”—Doris C. Dumlao