From November, the way you pay bus and tram fares changes. The current system - MyWay - gives way to MyWay+.
At the moment, you need a card, loaded with money, to tap on and tap off each journey. Under the new system, you can tap with a debit or credit card (including one connected to a phone or smartwatch). Old-style cards will still be available for those who don't want to use the more direct method.
The new cards will be more widely available, in supermarkets, for example.
But the changeover won't be overnight. Sometime in September, the old cards will not be needed and public transport will be free.
The ACT government says that this transition is necessary so that the new technology can be installed and glitches ironed out. Running the two side-by-side would have been confusing, planners felt.
"We want to make sure that the design is right for the customer experience," Transport Minister Chris Steel said.
"We wanted to make sure that this transition is as simple as possible for Canberrans, and that's why there's going to be a hard transfer from the old MyWay system to the new MyWay+ system."
From September, there would be what he called "user testing" by 200 selected Canberrans who would be a cross-section, some young, some old, for example.
How long this free travel period will be has not been announced. And it's not completely clear that timing won't slip if glitches are bigger than anticipated - so the free transport period may be longer.
And free travel for passengers means no revenue from fares to the ACT government. Mr Steel said that this added up to $2.5 million.
So what do you need to do?
"We're asking Canberrans to take some action by registering their MyWay cards so that we can either provide a refund or transfer the balance or credit to the new MyWay+ system when it starts operations in November," Mr Steel said.
"They can register their MyWay cards by calling 13 17 10 or by using Transport Canberra's website."
"We have 575,000 old MyWay cards, many of which do have quite considerable balances and we want to make sure that the balance is transferred or refunded to customers."
About 186,000 cards are registered so the other 389,000 aren't.
What happens to the money if people don't register their current cards?
That is yet to be decided.
Mr Steel said there was "just under $10 million worth of credit currently stored on MyWay cards.
He said he wanted to make sure that as much of that as possible was transferred but "a decision hasn't been made about the use of those funds in the future. At the moment, it's sitting there for people to transfer or get a refund".
Why are they making the change?
The current system depends on the Optus 3G network and Optus initially said it would switch the system off in September. It's since said there will be an extension to the end of October but the ACT government said Optus' decision doesn't alter the change-over to MyWay+.
On top of that, the current fares system has difficulties. Out-of-towners obviously don't have cards so visitors are faced with the annoying choice of dodging fares or not travelling on public transport.
"The current ticketing system is a barrier to people using public transport. For interstate visitors, it can be challenging to understand how to use the system. There are only a limited number of vendors from which to buy an old MyWay card at the moment. The new system will provide a far greater range of vendors to buy a travel card.
"They'll be available through major supermarket chains and, of course, both visitors and Canberrans won't need to use a travel card at all."
What might we find out?
The two-or-so months of free public transport will be a useful experiment for planners. Will it lead to a reduction of cars on the road during rush-hour, for example? Will the numbers using buses and trams rise or stay the same? Will there even be a crowding problem?
In 2015, Melbourne introduced a Free Tram Zone (FTZ) in the city centre.
A committee of the Parliament of Victoria concluded in 2020: "While the FTZ has benefited many, some negative outcomes were also reported to the Committee. Overcrowding of trams in the CBD has resulted in slower services, uncomfortable passenger experience, safety issues, and boarding difficulty for passengers with mobility needs and those who rely on trams for their commute."
But revenue was down: "Yarra Trams reported that the average tram passenger is now contributing 18 per cent less to the farebox (that is, yield per passenger), while month-to-month comparative farebox receipts were down about 10 per cent after the introduction of the FTZ."
