Metro cards are over twenty years old, and it seems the time has come to say goodbye to them. From the time metro trains have been in existence, people have been using those cards and tokens to pay for their subway rides. But now it won’t be the only method for payment, as Apple has announced that people will be able to transit through metro by paying using Apple Pay instead of the MetroCard.
Yes! To initiate the usage of Apple Pay for paying for the subway rides, Apple has announced that the very payment method is coming to Organizations Transportation Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). The new terminals have already been installed at a different New York City subway stations, including Union Square and Grand Central, such that for now, the riders will be able to pay for their rides on the subway’s 4, 5, 6 line through the Apple Pay app.
Starting from Friday this week, the passage where usually the metro card and the tokens are scanned, people will see a digital rectangular panel enclosed in blue light attached to the bottom part of the turnstile. Over the panel, instead of the metro card, the riders can scan their iPhone and even the Apple watch.
There are some compatibility criteria that one would need to fulfil in order to use the Apple Pay for the transit. First of all the OS for the iPhone must be updated at least up to iOS 12.3, and the watchOS must be 5.2.1 version. Apple Pay will reflect the Express Transit feature which will be available for iPhone 6s and SE or later. Same for the Apple watch, only the Apple Watch Series 1, 2 and 3, using NFC will be able to offer the feature. The user needs to authenticate their debit or credit card with the Express Transit features, such that to make payment through the Apple Pay app.
The method to use iPhone and Apple watch is quite simple and similar to the usage of MetroCards. The rider needs to place their iPhone or the Apple watch against the digital screen on the turnstile, and when the light turns green, a message of ‘Go’ is flashed on it, and the metal arm will be unlocked for the rider to pass through.
The same feature has also been announced by the other tech giant Google on its payment app Google Pay, that too will start operating from 31 May in select subway stations for the specific subway lines. In fact, for the Google Pay, the riders just need to download the app and attach the payment methods to it, and they can easily pay through their phones without opening the app or even unlocking their phones.
Yashica is a Software Engineer turned Content Writer, who loves to write on social causes and expertise in writing technical stuff. She loves to watch movies and explore new places. She believes that you need to live once before you die. So experimenting with her life and career choices, she is trying to live her life to the fullest.