Rome introduces contactless payment for ticket-free metro
Rome’s public transport company ATAC has introduced fast-track payment turnstiles for the city’s metro and train network, allowing passengers to pay using a contactless credit or debit card. Rome contactless payment
The Tap&Go system has been hailed by Rome’s mayor Virginia Raggi as “a real revolution for public transport that will make life easier for those who use the metro every day.”
Rome contactless payment
The system, launched by the mayor on 18 September, works by placing the credit or debit card near the Tap&Go reader which debits the ticket fee automatically.
The journey must start on the metro although it may be continued on the city’s overground transport for the 100-minute duration of a normal €1.50 ticket.
Currently around half of the city‘s metro turnstiles are equipped with the contactless card readers which will be installed by the end of the year at all metro stations on the A, B / B1 and C lines, and on the Roma-Lido, Roma-Viterbo and Termini-Centocelle railways.
Rome tickets and passes on Metro – a user’s guide
The Rome Metro Underground train system at the moment has three lines named A, B and C.
Lines A and B intersect at Rome Termini Station, the main public transport hub in Rome. Line C is a new line gradually being opened in stages.
The new line C is in the process of being implemented. Originally due in the year 2000 the first stage finally opened in November 2014.
Line C is of little use to tourists at the moment – it runs between Monte Compatri, about 12 miles south-east of the city, to Parco di Centocelle, on the outskirts of the centre.
The plan is to extend it eventually to Piazza Venezia and the Colosseum in the heart of the city, but that is not likely to happen until 2022 at the earliest.
