The city Tuesday unveiled Oahu’s first Holo transit smart card, lauding it as a significant technological upgrade and step closer to Honolulu’s goal of multimodal transportation.

With the tap of a Holo card, commuters will be able to pay for their fare on TheBus, TheHandi-­Van and, in the future, the city’s rail system, as well as transfer seamlessly between the various modes of transport. The city plans to start installing card readers on buses next month, with hopes of a full rollout on all 550 buses in the first quarter of next year.

“It’s forward-thinking, it’s forward-leaning,” said Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell at a news conference before Honolulu Hale on Tuesday morning. “It’s planning for a future that’s not here yet.”

The transit smart card has been in the works for several years, according to Caldwell.

City Department of Transportation Services Deputy Director Jon Nouchi said beta testing, or a trial, for the Holo cards is expected to begin this summer with 5,000 public testers, to be recruited after the city finishes internal testing. The city also plans to distribute cards for free during the projected launch early next year.

“So the word ‘holo’ means to ride, to go, to glide or to flow,” said Nouchi at the news conference, “and that is really the dream, to have one card that really can get you on anything, aboard anything, to let you transit through this city in a true multimodal fashion.”

The Holo cards are expected to be available by early 2019 from TheBus Pass Office at Kalihi Transit Center, satellite city halls and more than 100 retailers, including Foodland, 7-Eleven and Times Supermarkets. The cards can be loaded with a minimum of $2.75 up to $200.

Customers also should be able to load current monthly and annual bus passes to their Holo card accounts. However, paying for TheBus fares in cash will still remain an available option.

HART Fare System project manager Whitney Birch said the estimated capital costs for the Holo system rollout were $23 million. The costs, appropriated in 2016, are shared between the city DTS and the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation in a contract with INIT, a German software company. The first phase of Honolulu Rail Transit, from Kapolei to Aloha Stadium, is expected to open in late 2020.

Holo will have a call center as well as a website, holocard.net, where cards can be registered and reloaded. If registered, cards that are lost can be deactivated and replaced.

The Holo card is similar to the Clipper card in the San Francisco Bay Area, which can be used on the Bay Area Rapid Transit train, light rail and buses. In Hong Kong an Octopus card allows one to pay fares on Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway, buses, ferries, trams and airport express.

HART Executive Director and CEO Andrew Robbins, who has used smart transit cards in San Francisco and Hong Kong, said the goal is to offer convenience and freedom for riders.

“You just move between the bus and rail, and you don’t have to worry about fare each time,” he said. “It just gives you a complete sense of freedom.”

City Department of Information Technology Director Mark Wong said in the future the city can explore potential partnerships that would allow the Holo card to be used for Biki, Honolulu’s bikeshare system, or possible admission to the Honolulu Zoo and Hanauma Bay. None of those partnerships are in place yet.