Prime Minister and acting Minister for Communications announced today that commuters will now be able to transfer the balance from a lost or stolen e-ticketing card to a new one, a feature that was conspicuously absent when the new system launched.
“When the upgraded system was first launched, you couldn’t transfer money from one intricate card to another,” the Prime Minister told Parliament this morning.
“Your original plan was to have a simpler system… We quickly learned that was the problem.”
To solve this, the PM revealed that the project’s steering committee has instructed service provider Vodafone to enable balance transfers for legitimate card replacements, provided users submit proper documentation.
This new safeguard is designed specifically to ensure “that passengers do not lose their card value in cases such as card loss or theft.”
The process will involve a verification step to prevent fraud and protect public funds.
“In such cases, a police report will reinforce the system integrity by requiring verification before any transfer is approved,” the PM stated, framing the measure as a way to balance consumer protection with the safeguarding of community funds.
The inability to transfer balances had been a primary source of frustration for users of the new system, which aims to modernize public transport payments. The government’s original model was based on systems used in other countries but failed to account for local expectations regarding the protection of card value.
The PM acknowledged the ongoing challenges, stating, “We plan to acknowledge that there have been challenges and we will continue to improve.”
