Results revealed from MTA, MasterCard PayPass pilot
02 February, 2012
category: Contactless, Transit
As some may recall back in June 2010, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) of New York launched tap-and-go contactless payments for commuters to enter select subway stations and participating bus lines using MasterCard PayPass-enabled terminals. Well, the results are in.
According to Fast Company, the pilot comprised of 26 MTA subway stations and eight bus lines – of the 468 subway stations and 183 bus routes – throughout the city. During the six-month pilot more than 17,000 commuters boarded MTA subway stations and buses using the MasterCard’s PayPal system. Of which, approximately 74,000 taps were recorded.
While 17,000 may not seem like a whole lot, both MasterCard and the MTA deemed the pilot as a success. The pilot was only a short-term initiative at a fraction of MTA locations, and the contactless technology behind the program was very new in the eyes of consumers in 2010.
“It wasn’t about customer acceptance,” said Aaron Donovan, a spokesperson for the MTA. “It showed us that it is a workable system for our environment.”
The MTA said that it plans to move beyond the pilot – going into production and implementing contactless fare system across the entire MTA network. A full rollout of the contactless fare payment system is anticipated to go out in phases to all buses and subway stations through the end of 2015.
Read the full story here.