James Barron, New York Times:
On Monday, the city’s transit system took a significant step toward a more modern way for passengers to pay their fares. Starting late next year, they can do it the way Londoners already do, by waving cellphones or certain kinds of credit or debit cards at the turnstiles in the subway or the fareboxes on buses.
A committee of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a $573 million contract for a new fare payment system adapted from the one in use for several years on the London Underground and London’s commuter railroads. New electronic readers will be installed in 500 subway turnstiles and on 600 buses in New York beginning late next year, and will reach the rest of the city’s subway stations and buses by late 2020.
And:
The system will work through apps like Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay as well as “contactless cards” — credit or debit cards with embedded chips that rely on a wireless technology known as near field communication, or N.F.C.
The resistance was strong in this one, but the force beckons. In other words, it’s about time.
NYC can be PAINFULLY conservative sometimes. Glad this was finally green-lighted. Though, if they actually install it by end of next year, then donkeys will fly.
This is terrific, but this had very little to do with any sort of philosophical issue, but due to cost. It’s going to cost over half a billion dollars to do it. It was easier to do this on the Tube as they had NFC Oyster cards a while ago.
And, as the article reminds us, none of this will address the NYC subway system’s far more urgent infrastructure problem.