The Octopus cull begins, don’t say you weren’t warned.
Starting tomorrow, a portion of the first generation Octopus Cards issued shortly after 1997 will become invalid.
More specifically, cards numbered between 00000001 to 00050000, and 80000001 to 80020000 will cease to work, according to the company behind the travel pass.
The Octopus company has for months been encouraging people with first generation Octopus passes to update their cards, which will be phased out in three stages beginning from tomorrow until March.
Since October, the old cards, which are free to replace, have been making a distinct “dood-dood-dood” noise when swiped to alert holders that they’re on their way out.
Another way of spotting a first-generation card is to check if your card number has no brackets for the last digit. If it doesn’t have a bracket, keep an eye out for your number.
The company behind the card said the replacement was part of “an on-going initiative aimed at keeping the Octopus in circulation up-to-date with security and technological advances”.
Users can replace the cards for free at any Octopus Service Point located at designated MTR stations and shopping malls, MTR Customer Service Centres (except Light Rail Customer Service Centres) or the designated Kowloon Motor Bus Customer Service Centres.
Here is Octopus CEO Sunny Cheng demonstrating how to use these machines.
We all love the Octopus Card, and there is something quite musical about about having hundreds of Hongkongers pressing their Octopus Cards at different times.
So for those who have been wondering this entire time what the different “doods” mean (and we know you have been), here is a pianist playing the four different sounds an Octopus Card makes and what they mean. Thanks Internet.
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