CJSC “Azerbaijan Railways” (“ADY”) continues efforts to improve a contactless system of payment in electric trains running on the Absheron ring railway.

For this purpose it was agreed with the International Bank of Azerbaijan to purchase from the first quarter of next year additional 100 validators, as well as purchase and install 250 new validators to use contactless payment system at all turnstiles during the year. At the same time all turnstiles at the 14 stations of the Absheron ring railway will support the contactless payment system, the “ADY” said.

With the support from the Central Bank through a joint partnership between “VISA”, “IBA” and “ADY” in June 2021 the first contactless payment system in the country’s public transport sector has been launched on electric transport. At present, the stations of the Absheron ring railway have created the possibility of payment for all types of tickets: paper tickets, ADY cards and any bank cards that support contactless payment. As of October this year, bank cards account for 16% of total payment volume.

The ADY report also says that for the first time in Azerbaijan contactless payments will be available at the turnstiles through Google Pay and Apple Pay in the public transport sector. At present, the work in this direction is at the stage of testing. Integration of Google Pay and Apple Pay services for VISA card users has already been completed. Special work on technical integration between IBA and other partners for use of this service by MasterCard users is underway.

Source: Turan News Agency