Bus riders can begin paying with smartphone system
Port Authority’s longawaited smartphone system for paying bus fares is available for all customers.
The agency announced Monday that all bus riders can download either the Port Authority’s Ready@Ride app or the Transit app to pay their fares. The smartphone payment system, which is available at www.portauthority.org/gomobile, has been under development by Masabi LLC since May 2019.
The authority has been testing the system through a pilot of about 100 riders since February. After working out a few minor kinks and installing validators to read smartphones on the authority’s 720 buses, the system is ready to go.
Riders who use weekly, monthly or annual passes can’t switch their current pass to the mobile system, but they can purchase a new one on a smartphone when it is time to renew. Weekly passes for next week and monthly passes for September will be available later this week.
Annual passes, which have a rolling start date based on when they are purchased, can be renewed on the mobile system when they are close to expiration.
Fares for individual rides can be purchased on the mobile system at any time.
“Paying your transit fare should be fast, easy, and convenient,” Port Authority CEO Katharine Eagan Kelleman said in a news release. “The adoption of mobile ticketing technology represents a big leap forward for Port Authority and another step in the right direction for our region.”
One hitch for now is that the mobile system won’t be available on the light rail system until early next year. That’s because the agency has to use different validators on the light rail system, which has an underground portion that has to meet different federal standards for fire safety.
The mobile payment system is part of the authority’s goal of making it as easy as possible to obtain whatever fare a rider needs. The authority has faced criticism for the lack of availability to those fare products in low-income communities, but spokesman Adam Brandolph said the agency is working on a contract that should begin early next year that will make fare products available “a whole lot of places” for riders who don’t have smartphones.
The authority also will switch to a new fare structure at the beginning of the year that will raise fares for everyone to the cash fare of $2.75, replace transfer fees with a three-hour window for unlimited rides and allow weekly and monthly passes to begin on the first day they are used instead of the first day of the week or month. The mobile system automatically will adjust to the new fare system in January.
“Investments in tools like these further modernize our transit system, making it more accessible and efficient for all users,” said Jennifer Liptak, vice chair of the authority’s board who heads the technology committee.