All Macao’s public buses will accept Alipay from mainland Chinese and Hong Kong users from 25 April, along with non-local UnionPay cards, local media reports. The new options will be especially convenient for visitors, who may not have ready cash on hand.
Passengers will be able to pay their fares by scanning a QR “ride code” displayed on buses. The single-trip fare will be 6 patacas and ineligible for the 50 percent discount that comes with a Macau Pass.
Most buses currently accept cash, the Macau Pass, Simple Pay, and local UnionPay QuickPass. Some TCM and Transmac buses already accept Alipay.
[See more: This is how you catch a public bus in Macao]
“We’ve always received feedback from visitors, especially those from the mainland, that they are not able to use the same payment methods for public bus fares in Macao as in the mainland, rendering it inconvenient for them to get on public transport as they do not always have cash on them,” lawmaker Ella Lei Cheng I told The Macau Post Daily.
Lei is now calling on the government to offer more e-payment options for Macao’s Light Rail Transit (LRT) line.
She said that with more LRT routes opening in the near future, it made sense to make them more accessible via a broader range of payment options.
