Upgrades to WA public transport payment system to be rolled out in early December

Perth commuters will be able to use credit cards, phones and smart watches to pay for public transport fares from next month.

The initiative, more than a year behind schedule and more than $10 million over budget, is set to roll out from December 8.

WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said a four-week trial on ferries, buses and trains earlier this year had gone well.

"This is something that I think the public are very keen on," she said on Thursday.

"This will give people more flexibility and more choice, in particular for tourists … who might be here for two or three days and don't want to buy a SmartRider."

Ms Saffioti said SmartRiders, which provide discounted fares of up to 20 per cent, would continue alongside the new payment types.

It's understood discounts are not available with the new payment types.

"We'll look over time how they merge into one," she said.

"But currently it's very much about introducing this option and seeing how it travels over time."

Over time, over budget

In June, a report from Auditor-General Caroline Spencer identified the SmartRider upgrade project as one of 10 major IT projects which had blown out in cost and time.

The report said information around the status and cost of the projects was not readily available to taxpayers and called for better transparency.

The government announced in 2023 that it would modernise the SmartRider system, promising to roll it out by mid-2024 at a cost of $58 million.

The Public Transport Authority (PTA) later blamed the delays on "technical and resource challenges".

Ms Saffioti added that some of the delays had been due to supply chain interruptions caused by COVID and other global pressures.

"We have heard excuse after excuse from the minister about this delay," opposition transport spokesperson Steve Martin said.

"They've been talking about this since 2017, and in the meantime they've blamed COVID, they've blamed the war in Ukraine.

"And now we have a system that's been announced today and it's costing people more to use."

The deputy premier said she hoped the initiative would boost the numbers of people using public transport.

"The incidental use will definitely increase, and I think especially young people will enjoy the ability to tap on with their, with their credit cards," she said.

'Near-record' public transport usage

It comes after the government released statistics showing increasing public transport usage, off the back of almost $17 billion spent on Metronet.

In August, the PTA said patronage across the public transport network had surged to "near record levels" with nearly 149 million boardings last financial year.

"Our government recognises how important a well-functioning public transport system is for our growing state, and that's why we've made significant investments to make it more affordable and accessible for everyone," Ms Saffioti said in August.

The boarding figures are the highest in 11 years and just short of the 2012-13 all-time record of 149.7 million boardings.

WA Greens leader Brad Pettitt said the government should now look at other ways of improving the uptake of public transport, including establishing free transit zones outside the CBD.

"At the moment, our fares only contribute now less than 20 per cent of the total cost of running our public transport system," he said.

"We might as well just make it cheap enough where more people use it."

Mr Martin criticised the figures at the time, given the state government's huge spend on Metronet.

When announcing the opening date for the new Midland train station last week — which almost doubled in price — Ms Saffioti insisted Metronet had been worth the multi-million-dollar budget blowouts.