Use of personal transport cards on the increase

The Athens Urban Transport Organization (OASA) has announced that, as of October 1, it will stop issuing paper tickets for special groups such as over-65s, under-18s, students and large families. As a result, they will have to purchase personalized electronic cards.

Up until now, they could only purchase paper tickets from counters at a few train stations as they were not available from ticket vending machines.

According to OASA, holders of the new personalized cards can purchase a fare via their smartphones using NFC technology without needing to go to a ticket counter or vending machine.

OASA says that it has so far issued more than 800,000 personalized cards and another 350,000 non-personalized ones.