Monday, March 19

Chalti ka naam gaadi

Touch and go invades Tokyo. Now one prepaid IC card will work across all buses and trains in Tokyo area. Taxis and flights, not yet:) This is really good. So far only JR had the IC card. Suica with the penguin icon. For private lines, Toei lines and Tokyo Metro, the ticket system was different. Though in some of the popular routes, they issued combined tickets. You had to bother about which company runs the line you use. No more. I used my JR Suica to office today. No hiccups, smooth sailing it was. No clogging at the gates and the human traffic was just flowing. With Suica, now I can board all the trains, dont bother who runs them, buses and purchase at Kiosks at any station too. Good. Also this probably is a huge step for credit cards in Japan, with a late start. With the credit card embedded IC cards from Tokyo Metro, the card will get automatically charged when you exit with a low charge in card. Hmm.. automatic.. dangerous... And now with the mobile phones embedding these IC cards and credit cards, you will be totally living out of your mobile phone and a credit card company? I dont think I will use the new card in bus. Why should I? For trains I had the advantage of rushing towards the train. In bus, I am using this inside the bus. It is definitely good for me if the person ahead of me uses the card so that I can get in on a winter day. No advantage for me but. And I lose the 15% added points that the buses give for prepaid cards.. Anyway, no more JR, shitetsu, chikatetsu, Toei.. chalti ka naam gaadi.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

this is a very good news!!
i want to get it too, but my JR pass and Metro pass expire on different dates.
in that case should i wait till JR pass expires and pay Metro regular fare(??)
there are something confusing and im hesitating :))