Mastercard Enables Contactless Payments At TriMet

Commuters in Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington can now add a digital Hop Fastpass card to their iPhone or Apple Watch, thanks to an alliance between Mastercard and Apple.

Mastercard announced Tuesday (May 21) that using Mastercard token services, commuters can add a card purchased through the Hop Fastpass App to Apple Wallet and tap their iPhone or Apple Watch to get on board public transportation. TriMet, the region’s biggest transit provider, in 2017 enabled all Hop electronic fare card readers to accept contactless bank cards, credit cards and debit cards in Apple Wallet to ride buses, trains and streetcars. Riders no longer had to wait on line at a ticket machine or make a trip to the store to purchase a pass.  According to Mastercard, since TriMet did that, Portland has been able to eliminate 210,000 daily car trips and saved more than $150 million in congestion expenses.

“This is a fast-paced world and it’s important that we enable cities to keep pace with their commuters,” Linda Kirkpatrick, EVP, U.S. merchants and acceptance at Mastercard, said in the announcement. “We’re thrilled to bring our technology to solve new problems, and by doing so hope to take some of the frustration out of the daily commute.” Mastercard has been partnering with cities, transit agencies and technology companies to create flexible payment methods for transit. Mastercard will roll out its contactless payment technology for public transportation in more cities in the coming months, include New York City’s MTA.

Earlier this month Mastercard teamed with Kisio, a unit of Keolis, to make it easier for people to pay for transportation around a city. Mastercard and Kisio said they will transform how millions of people get around cities by embedding Mastercard’s payment technology into Kisio’s trip planning and ticketing capabilities. Transportation providers will be able to let passengers book their trips in one app.