MNTC to use beep cards at expressways

Manila North Tollways Corp. said Thursday it will roll out the contactless automated fare collection system at North Luzon Expressway and Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway in the first quarter of 2017.

“It’s in the works. They are currently installing the system. We are targeting first quarter of next year,” Romulo Quimbo Jr., senior vice president for legal, regulatory and government relations of MNTC told reporters. 

MPTC operates NLEx and SCTEx.

Rodrigo Franco, president and chief executive of MNTC, earlier said AF Payments Inc., a consortium led by Ayala Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp., would provide the device for the rollout of beep cards at NLEx and Cavitex. 

AF Payments won the P1.72-billion contract for the automated fare collection system project.

The new system uses contactless smart card technology to upgrade and integrate the ticketing infrastructure for major railways, including Light Rail Transit Line 1 and 2 and Metro Rail Transit Line 3.

The beep card is the new contactless payment solution developed to make the payment process more convenient across all three rail lines as it allows seamless transfers from one rail line to another.  

The beep card uses a more powerful chip-based system and will serve as an electronic payment solution for day-to-day payments. Beep cards can now use to pay toll on Cavite Expressway.

MNTC earlier completed the P650-million NLEx-SCTEx integration project, which involves the conversion of NLEx and Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway toll collection systems into a single one. 

The project  reduces toll collection stops to two, instead of five from Balintawak to Subic and back, and four from Balintawak to Tarlac and back.