Canberra residents will be able to enjoy free public transport travel from 20 September as Transport Canberra switches from its current ticketing system to MyWay+.

The transition is expected to take six weeks, during which time buses and light rail will run according to their planned timetables and with the same frequency.

“Significant progress has been made in the design, development and testing of the new MyWay+ system over the last few months,” said Transport Minister Chris Steele.

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“We are now at an exciting point where we can begin installing the system. This involves removing the existing MyWay hardware on board the buses and installing the new MyWay+ validators both on the buses and along the light rail lines.

“We will also be conducting a trial of the system with over 200 Canberrans who will be able to provide us with feedback on the new system and its journey planning functionality.

From 20 September, the current MyWay and NXTBUS real-time systems will no longer be available. This applies to buses at stops and stations, as well as the SMS service, but timetable information is available online and at major stops and interchanges.

Bus services will continue to operate as scheduled. Where possible, static timetable information will be available at bus stations.

The light rail service will continue to operate as scheduled. Next stop information will continue to be available for the light rail service (on board and at stops).

“The free travel period was planned as part of the ‘hard transition’ to the new MyWay+ system. We made this decision early on to avoid confusion for the public that would result from the two systems being in different states of start-up and end-of-life,” says Steel.

“The free travel period will give the community time to prepare for the changes and encourage new users to try bus and light rail as part of their daily commute.”

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