Mastercard partners with Fertagus and Finaro to bring Tap & Ride to Lisbon for the first time

• The partnership enables passengers to pay for a journey using a contactless bank card – instead of buying a ticket – enabling a more convenient travel experience
• The project – announced at European Mobility Week – will launch in the Lisbon area in November

Mastercard has partnered with rail operator Fertagus and payment service provider Finaro to bring Tap & Ride – the ability to pay for a rail ticket with contactless payment – to Lisbon for the first time. The new project was announced at European Mobility Week 2022, of which Mastercard is a leading partner.

The new initiative – which is currently being piloted with a view to being rolled out across the whole Fertagus network in November – will enable passengers to use their contactless bank card to travel on trains, without needing to purchase a ticket.

This service aims to create a more convenient and enjoyable experience for more than 90,000 passengers who use the suburban trains between Lisbon and the south bank every day.

This project represents one pillar of Mastercard’s partnership with Barraquiero Group – announced in February this year – which aims to transform the urban mobility sector in Portugal innovative digital and technological solutions – including payments and ticketing.

Maria Antónia Saldanha, Country Manager of Mastercard Portugal said: "The adoption of solutions, such as this with Fertagus, that make transport easier to pay for represents a giant step for both users and operators. At Mastercard, we have witnessed the impact this can have through similar projects we’ve been part of in other cities. Portugal still has a long way to go in digitising its urban mobility system, but our partnership with Barraqueiro Group and Finaro can drive the necessary digitalisation of payments that modern public transport systems require.”

Clara Esquível, manager at Fertagus added: “Innovative solutions like this improve the ease of use and quality of the public transport service we provide to our passengers. Fertagus has been a pioneer in Portugal for multiple innovative projects, including the use of mobile and contactless payments to travel. We want it to be easy for everyone to travel by train – even if it's their first time –  and contactless bank cards are a great enabler in reaching this goal. The environmental benefits of reducing paper ticket usage should also be mentioned.” 

The enrolment of this initiative would not have been possible without Finaro, a global bank that develops technological solutions for payments. Finaro's international experience and in-house capacity for certification and delivery of solutions has played a key role as the project's bank "enabler", enabling it to create a complete solution with reduced layers of complexity – both for Fertagus and the end users.

Other partners include Axians, a Vinci Group company, and Ubirider, a Portuguese start-up. The combined efforts of all made it possible to deliver the project in industry record time.

David Jofre Tejada, Vice President Business Development and Sales, Iberia at Finaro, commented: "The end-to-end solution we have developed covers the operators’ every need and simplifies the public transport payment system. We are very proud to bring this innovation to the Lisbon region in partnership with Fertagus and Mastercard. We believe in innovation and technological progress as means to improve the lives of all people."

The transport revolution is already underway

The roll-out of Tap & Ride technology across the Fertagus network represents the next step of Mastercard’s ambition to contribute to the improvement of urban mobility across Europe.

While this technology improves the travel experience for the passenger – removing the need to queue at train stations or worry about losing a paper ticket – it also provides significant benefits to the operators.

This can be best seen in London, where the local public transport operator obtained a 35% reduction in costs, worth in excess of €100 million. Since the launch of contactless payment solutions in London in September 2014, the city’s transport network (including buses, trains and underground services) has recorded three times as many trips, with 19 million contactless bank cards being used from over 100 different countries.