Mystery surrounds why the NSW Government has launched contactless payments for Sydney public transport users without including the cheapest card payments processor in the country - eftpos Australia.NSW transport minister Andrew Constance yesterday announced the expansion of contactless payments to all Sydney Ferry services and parts of the light rail system after the government sealed deals with Mastercard, Visa and American Express.Under the new arrangements commuters will no longer require an Opal card to pay for public transport fares.While Constance said in an interview broadcast on Channel Nine that offering "tap and go" services through mobile phones, smart watches and debit cards would give commuters more choice, he did not address the reasons for eftpos being left out of the trial.The decision means that millions of cardholders with eftpos-only services will not be able to pay fares using their debit cards.It also means that Public Transport for NSW is likely to be exposed to higher average acceptance costs by directing payments to processing platforms operated by the three global card schemes.Official data published by the Reserve Bank's Payments System Board last year shows that average merchant fees on debit card transactions processed by eftpos are 60 per cent cheaper than payments routed through the Visa and Mastercard systems."What an incredible day for the people of New South Wales," said Constance."It's great news for customer choice and convenience."We want to lead the way globally in terms of technology and transport."That's why initiatives such as this - expanding on Opal to give people customer choice - is really important."While Constance said the government was working with eftpos to consider how it could be included in the trial, he did not indicate when that might be.A spokesperson for eftpos Australia confirmed that the company had been talking to Transport for NSW about participating in the rollout of contactless payments for a year."It's essential that all card schemes are included to ensure there is competition in the system and that no cardholders are excluded," the spokesperson said.Australia's four major banks automatically direct all contactless debit transactions through the high-cost Mastercard and Visa processing platforms.However, federal parliament has put the banks on notice to drop the practice by giving merchants the choice to process contactless payments through cheaper systems, such as eftpos.In December last year the house standing committee on economics said the Payments System Board should take regulatory action against the banks if they had not complied with its recommendation by 1 April.