News
Barcelona prepares direct card payment on public transport for 2027
Barcelona is preparing one of the most eagerly awaited changes in access to public transport. The ATM is working so that from 2027 it will be possible to pay for certain journeys directly with a bank card or mobile phone, bringing them to the same validators used by T-mobilitat today.
The first phase will focus on single tickets, intended mainly for occasional travellers and tourists. The idea is to prevent someone who needs to make one or a few journeys from having to buy a support medium in advance or use a machine before entering the metro, boarding a bus or using other services.
The project will make use of the infrastructure deployed with T-mobilitat. Existing validators will also have to recognise contactless bank cards, separating transport management from the financial operation that authorises and settles each payment.
Implementation will not be automatic across the entire network. Although the ATM coordinates the integrated fare system, single tickets depend on each operator, so companies such as TMB, FGC, Renfe and TRAM will have to adapt their services and approve the new model.
The complexity increases on urban and intercity buses, where the T-mobilitat ecosystem brings together dozens of different companies. In total, the system already integrates more than 70 operators, one reason why extending bank-card payment requires coordinated and gradual implementation.
On TMB buses, paying for a single ticket by card has been possible for years, although through specific terminals. The next step will be to integrate that function into the validators themselves, making the gesture to enter practically the same whether using a T-mobilitat card or a bank card.
The contract being prepared by the ATM is worth around €3.46 million and provides for two years of operation, with the possibility of an extension. The specifications also leave open a later evolution towards more complex systems, in which a bank card can serve for more than paying for a single journey.
For the user, the change will be especially visible on spontaneous trips: arriving at a station, tapping the card and continuing the journey without buying a ticket first. Barcelona is thus moving closer to the model already used by other major European networks, although in 2027 the aim will still be more specific: to make the occasional ticket much simpler without dismantling T-mobilitat’s ticket ecosystem.