Ticket-vending machine set up at main bus station

“This is being done to reiterate our company’s commitment towards our customers and is part of our campaign to introduce the latest services adopting high-tech methods to meet the growing requirements of the country’s bus passengers,” a Mowasalat official said.

The ticket vending device has been installed to help passengers top up their existing cards as part of a pilot programme to assess their response to the service. A study is being conducted to determine the need for introducing the service in other areas and also add a feature that will enable selling new cards or credit card payment in future.

The ticket vending machine is a user friendly, smart device to recharge smart cards on a 24X7 basis, providing fast and secure top-up transactions. The touch-screen is capacitive and the device gives voice assistance to customers going through their transactions.

In addition, the machine has been designed to work under all weather conditions, from temperatures as low as -10 °C to as high as 70 °C.

The machine accepts QR1, 5, 10, 50 and 100 currency notes. Since it does not have a refund feature, customers have to pay only the amount to be used. As in ATMs, top-up machine has instructions in Arabic and English. The company may add more languages later.

The initiative, the company official said, will go a long way in meeting one of the long-standing demands of bus passengers sometimes face difficulties in topping up their smart cards.