SPECIAL: When is your bus going contactless?

On Thursday the state government announced the date of contactless payment 'tap and go' roll-out on Melbourne buses. That date is Sunday 26 July 2026. This is a big deal because tap and go makes payment for bus travel easy for any full fare payer with a credit or debit card. Trains and trams have already been contactless for some weeks prior. Contactless will remove a significant barrier for spontaneous trips. Right now there is a need to find a Myki outlet, buy a card ($6 before any travel), add some value and then keep it topped up. You forfeit the card cost if not making any more trips. And claiming refunds on unused balances is a hassle. Even worse was that buses stopped doing cash top-ups during the pandemic and never resumed them after. Myki's clunkiness (along with relatively high fares for some short trips and insanely cheap V/Line fares) even undermined the social licence of charging and enforcing fares in some peoples' minds. Admittedly Android users could have 'Mobile…