Apple Pay & Express Transit coming to some US and Canadian cities by 2023

By Oliver Haslam
published

Apple Pay Express Mode
Apple Pay Express Mode (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • Apple Pay and Apple Pay Express Transit make paying for journeys easier.
  • Philadelphia, Boston, and San Diego are adding support in America.
  • So are Toronto and Montréal in Canada.

Multiple cities in the United States and Canada are working to bring Apple Pay and Apple Pay Express Transit online by 2023, according to a new report by MacRumors.

Following the news that cities like London have gone online with Apple Pay Express Transit, MacRumors reached out to a number of transit authorities to see whether they had plans to bring the feature online.

Five cities responded, although the site only specifically mentions Boston as getting Express Transit mode in the future. It isn't clear whether the other cities will also offer the feature, or if they'll just be going all-in on Apple Pay in its standard form.

  • Philadelphia: SEPTA plans to start supporting Apple Pay and mobile ticketing next year. The rollout may begin as early as the second quarter of 2020, but the timeline is not firm yet.
  • Boston: MBTA says Apple Pay with Express Transit mode will be piloted in 2022 and rolled out widely in 2023. This will include CharlieCard fare card integration in the Wallet app.
  • San Diego: SDMTS plans to begin implementing a new fare payment system in late 2020 with support for mobile wallets like Apple Pay. No plans for Compass Card integration in the Wallet app at this time.
  • Toronto: Metrolinx says it is working toward initiating a limited pilot program to test out new forms of payment in 2020. In April 2018, Metrolinx reportedly said riders would be able to pay their fare by tapping their smartphone against a PRESTO reader in "far less than five years."
  • Montréal: STM plans to support Apple Pay around 2022-2023 for credit cards, but not the OPUS fare card.

Apple Pay Express Transit allows iPhone and Apple Watch users to pay for transport without first having to authenticate. Instead, simply placing their device near a reader will initiate a payment, even if the iPhone or Apple Watch isn't charged.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.