New credit card to help commuters tap in and out of Blue/Purple Line stations

Vithaya Punmongkol, vice governor of the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA), revealed that the MRTA will begin a trial to allow payment of fare for the MRT Blue Line and Purple line via EMV Contactless (Europay Mastercard and Visa) with all major credit cards having the contactless symbol, beginning January 29.

The service is a collaboration between MRTA, Bangkok Expressway and Metro Public Company Limited, as the concessionaire, and Krungthai Bank, which has taken responsibility for the development and installation of the card reader system and management of the fare payment system.

The MRTA has installed an EMV card reader in the 53 stations on the MRT Purple Line and Blue line for trial from January 29.

An average 37,000 passengers used the MRT Purple Line every day in December 2021, less than half of the average 75,000/day during the pre-Covid-19 period. The Blue Line too was sharply down to an average of 200,000 passengers/day, from 530,000 in the pre-Covid-19 period.

In January 2022, passenger traffic on both routes is likely to increase due to the improving pandemic situation. The Purple Line carried an average of 39,000 passengers/day, while the Blue Line had more than 200,000 passengers/day.