Trial Use of Octopus Cards on Parking Meters Completed

The 10-month trial on payment of parking meter fees by Octopus cards will end this Sunday (September 16) for the trial sites in Mong Kok and Ho Man Tin, and next Monday (September 17) in Causeway Bay and North Point. The Octopus-operated parking meters at these trial sites will hence be removed and replaced by parking meters only accepting e-Park cards.

Announcing the completion of the trial, a spokesman for the Transport Department (TD) said the trial had been conducted satisfactorily.

"The trial was launched on November 18 last year. Multi-bay and single-bay Octopus-operated parking meters had been put on trial at 200 parking spaces in selected sites in Causeway Bay, North Point, Mong Kok and Ho Man Tin.

"Trials of two other electronic payment cards, namely Mondex and Visa Cash, ended in March this year," he said.

"TD will fully evaluate the results of the three trials before deciding on the way forward in opening up the parking meter system to accept suitable reloadable smart cards," the spokesman added.

End/Thursday, September 13, 2001