ICYMI: PTV Quietly Rolled Out Contactless Payment on Trains This Week — No myki Required
Tap and go goes network-wide on Saturday, June 14 — full fare passengers only, and trains only for now.
For 16 years, riding a Melbourne train has started the same way: find the green card, top it up, tap it, and hope the reader is in a good mood. From Saturday, June 14, the myki is officially optional — every train line on the network will let you tap on with a bank card, phone or smartwatch instead.
The switch is the biggest visible step yet in Victoria's tap-and-go rollout, which has been inching across the network since a public trial kicked off on the Craigieburn, Upfield, Ballarat and Seymour lines in March. On June 7, the readers were switched on across most of the rest of the system — the Pakenham, Sunbury and Cranbourne lines (Metro Tunnel included), plus Frankston, Sandringham, Williamstown and Werribee, and the Geelong, Gippsland and Bendigo V/Line corridors. This Saturday, the final group joins: Mernda, Hurstbridge, Lilydale, Belgrave, Alamein and Glen Waverley.
The system takes Mastercard or Visa — physical card, phone wallet or smartwatch — and the golden rule is to tap off the same way you tapped on. Fares are identical to myki's, which means they're currently also half of what they used to be: public transport across Victoria is half price until January 1, 2027, capping a full-fare day at $5.70.
A few caveats before you bin the green card. Tap and go is for full fare passengers only — concession holders should stick with myki for now. It's also trains only: if your journey continues on a tram or bus, start with a myki, because the new readers haven't been switched on for those modes yet. Trams and buses are next in line, with the full network — concessions included — due to be running on the new system by late 2028.
And if you make a mistake, don't panic. Authorised officers can check contactless payments with a portable reader, and they won't see your banking details or any personal information when they do. You can review your trips — and any pending charges, which can take up to three days to settle — via the contactless payments portal.
It's been a long time coming. Victoria announced the move to tap-and-go ticketing after years of watching Sydney commuters breeze through the gates with their phones, and Melburnians only recently got to ditch the physical card for mobile myki. The green card isn't dead yet — you'll still need it for the tram. But for the first time since myki arrived, boarding a Melbourne train doesn't require one.
For answers to common tap-and-go questions, see Transport Victoria's contactless payment FAQs.
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