1,700 Bravo buses will now take contactless credit card payments, as well as Octopus and QR payments

Over 300 routes run by CityBus and New World First Bus will accept contactless credit card and mobile payments from Saturday 16 October, with owner Bravo Transport claiming to be the first bus operator in Hong Kong to fully accept such payments.

The second phase of Bravo Transport’s electronic payment service will extend to contactless payment of VISA, MasterCard and UnionPay, along with smartphone payments for Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay on 1,700 buses.

The first phases of such payments was launched earlier this year, with QR-code readers installed on many buses.

Bravo did not respond to requests for payment data or the relative usage of QR payments but said usage from customers “increases”.

While cash is thought to be on the wane, a recent cash-box robbery from KMB buses showed coins are still in some favour: suspects arrested for stealing 21 KMB cash boxes in September were thought to have netted around HK$25,000 cash according to police.

The new contactless systems will work with the Bus-bus Interchange Fare Concession, two-way section fares and Citybus Cityflyer Same Day Return Fare discounts, but senior citizens will not be able to enjoy the $2 special fare unless paying by Octopus.