Perth commuters are one step closer to being able to tag on to public transport with their phones, as Transperth begins to slowly roll out technology it first mooted six years ago.

But the full rollout is likely still more than eight months away in the first major upgrade to the state’s SmartRider system since it was introduced nearly 20 years ago.

Over the next few weeks 30 new SmartRider ‘validators’ — the tag on, tag off machines — will be installed across the network, including in Warwick, Glendalough, East Perth, Claisebrook and Perth.

It’s expected those readers will be tested with existing SmartRiders for two months, before they replace the more than 4,500 validators currently on the network.

That changeover alone is expected to take six months to roll out, at which point further testing will be needed before the credit card functionality is switched on.

Once it is, most commuters will be able to ditch their SmartRider in favour of whatever card, mobile or wearable device they want to use.

Concession holders will likely need to keep their physical SmartRiders though, because of issues applying their concessions.

Step closer to cashless payments

Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said it was hoped the $58 million being spent on the project would help encourage uptake of buses, trains and ferries.

“We want more people to catch public transport. We’ve seen a significant bounce back in public transport patronage, a 20 per cent increase from last year,” she said.

“We want to continue to encourage people to use public transport, so this new ticketing system is really targeted at those occasional users and tourists and others that haven’t got SmartRiders.”

Ms Saffioti suggested the change could also hasten the end of cash being accepted on public transport.

“It would be something that we will look to, we haven’t made the final decision,” she said.

“But it would help with ending the cash payments and some of those delays or those disagreements that occur on the bus sometimes between a passenger and a driver.”

Commuter numbers grow, but below pre-COVID

Public transport use continues to recover post-COVID but remains below pre-pandemic levels.

The last financial year saw more than 123 million boardings across bus, train and ferry passengers – up 21 per cent on the year before – which the government attributed to the opening of the airport rail line and the continuation of the two-zone fare cap.

But the figures are still 13 per cent below the last financial year not affected by COVID.

“One of the issues has been overseas students are big users of our network in the past. We’ve seen them not coming back to what they were,” Ms Saffioti said.

“We believe those overseas students and people attending campuses will come back to pre-COVID activities so I’m very confident.”

Patronage on the airport line was also reaching the government’s expectations of around 20,000 extra boardings across the entire network each day, Ms Saffioti said, after confusion over the government’s use of that statistic.

But those figures are expected to take a hit when the Armadale Line closes for 18 months later this year, despite the government’s efforts to move people onto replacement bus services.