TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Passengers in Taipei or New Taipei will have to swipe their card both when getting on and off the bus beginning July 1, the Central News Agency reported Thursday (June 6).

At present, some buses require passengers to swipe the card when getting on, while others allow passengers to board through the back door and only swipe the card just before getting off, creating confusion for many people.

In the first phase of the introduction, from July 1 until the end of next January, passengers would be encouraged to swipe twice but would not be penalized if they didn’t, Taipei City transportation officials said. It will be enough to use the new system once to be eligible to take part in a prize drawing, and the more one swipes, the more chances there are of winning a prize.

From February 1, 2020, passengers who do not swipe twice will still not lose their card, but they will no longer be eligible for discounts when transferring between different buses, or to Mass Rapid Transit and YouBike, according to the CNA report.

Since all buses had been equipped with a card reader each door, the new measure would not slow down services, officials explained.

When boarding the bus, NT$15 (US$0.47) would be subtracted from the card’s value, and when disembarking, either nothing, another NT$15 or NT$30 would be subtracted depending on how far the passenger had traveled, according to transportation officials.

All passengers had to do was to make sure that their card contained at least NT$15 in order to allow for transfers.

