SWB Bus and Bahn, the transit agency serving the city of Bonn, is the first such operator in Germany to accept contactless EMV payments.
The open-loop service, called BONNsmart, has been live on the city’s nine tram lines and 48 bus lines since March, following pilots, which started in August 2020 on the city’s airport bus line and a fast-track bus line. Funding for the pilot project came from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
With the launch of the open-loop service, Bonn has become the first city in Germany–a country famously reticent about using payments cards–especially credit cards–to adopt contactless EMV for public transit. It’s an effort to encourage the city’s frequent visitors and tourists, many of whom arrive from countries where cards are more ubiquitous, to use the public transit system by making it more accessible.
