Apple announced a new venue for Apple Pay at Monday’s media event, mass transit. So far there aren’t many details, aside from bringing New York City, Chicago, and Portland transit systems up to speed with Beijing and Shanghai, where transit passengers can pay by tapping their iPhones or Apple Watches on terminals to board buses or trains as of last year.
There is no rollout date as of yet, so detail are light. However, Apple has posted a Support article outlining the new feature and Portland’s transit system has posted an update regarding Hop, the current digital payment system, with a placeholder page which promises that “Soon, you’ll get all the benefits of Hop without having to carry another card.” We reached out to Trimet and will update the story if they reply.
San Diego, and North County Transit have an app that we can use, but my wife and I still carry and use the Compass Card. I do see a lot more folks using the app, most of them are younger.
Anyway, having Apple Pay would be nice for the times we take the Coaster heavy rail train to Oceanside; we don’t have that fare included on our senior rate Compass Card. $18 month for each of us, unlimited rides on buses and trolley and we use it a lot.