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Express Transit with Apple Pay in Japan is easily the best way to ride transit around the world

RastaMentality

RastaMentality

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,127
With iOS 12.3, Apple introduced Express Transit on Apple Pay transit cards. Basically allows you to scan in at subway stations without having to authenticate.



It's amazing and works every time. All you do is tap your phone on the turnstile reader and it deducts your balance. It even works when your phone dies (mine did once while in Tokyo).



It works in Shanghai and will soon in NYC with OMNY too. (It isn't in London yet)

Express Transit cards with power reserve
On iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR, you can use power reserve with your Express Transit cards. Power reserve enables you to quickly pay for rides and is available for up to five hours when your iPhone needs to be charged.
To see if Express Transit cards are available when your iPhone needs to be charged, press the side button. Doing this often may significantly reduce the power reserve for Express Transit cards. If you choose to power off your iPhone, this feature will not be available.
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badcrumble

badcrumble

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,732
I'm so excited for NYC to have this. First time basically ever that we'll actually have the newest transit payment/pass technology instead of staying between 1 and 3 generations behind.

I've used this (with the express transit thing) on the test OMNY turnstiles with my iPhone and with my Apple Watch. It's great and it's just as fast as a perfectly-executed metro card swipe (really).

How well the system works in practice, though, depends a lot on how they handle the fare structure. NYCers will riot if you try to introduce zoned fares (partly because of the added cost, mostly because it'd slow down the exit from the station and we're impatient fuckers). I do hope, though, that they get rid of the monthly pass and instead just have an automatic monthly fare cap like London's system has. Ideally that'd allow them to jack the basic fare up (as a tax on tourists) while keeping the monthly cap relatively low for actual NYC residents.
 
Vuze

Vuze

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,186
That's so awesome. Meanwhile in Germany fucking Deutsche Bahn hasn't even managed to merge your ticket and frequent traveller/discount card into one wallet pass. You can add your ticket but then have to navigate in their trash tier app to show your virtual card there when there's a ticket check. Not to mention their QR readers always need at least two attempts to scan successfully 🤦‍♂️

I guess it's not really comparable but it pisses me off multiple times a week, I needed to vent seeing such a sleek check in for transit lol
 
Sir Hound

Sir Hound

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,197
WorldofMiku said:
I was right: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207958

Express Transit does not work on TfL yet. Maybe you guys got confused on what this feature does.
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What's the difference? It's worked on TFL for years, they even cap you to a weekly card.
Hopefully it comes to Amsterdam soon.

Edit: I see, you don't have to authenticate. Hmm. Sounds ok but I've seen how long it takes to initialise Apple Pay when you haven't manually primed it. Maybe the speed has improved since the 7 but every second counts when the stations busy.
 
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ThreePi

Member
Dec 7, 2017
4,765
Its moderately annoying as a foreigner who goes to Japan once a year to use a physical Suica card, but I was under the impression that for people living in Japan with Japanese phones they could pay this way for a while. But what exactly makes this Apple integration so exciting? I'll admit I'm a suburbanite so I don't deal with public transport very often, but when I do go down to Chicago I don't even bother with a Ventra card, I can just tap my phone and it just charges straight to my Google Pay, no app or Ventra account or anything like that.
 
Chikor

Chikor

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
14,239
Yeah, the Beijing subway introduced phone payment last year and it's really great.
The only concern I have is that adds another entry to pile of things you can't do if you break/lose/run out of batter with your phone, but I feel that's a war we already lost.
 
WorldofMiku

WorldofMiku

attempted ban circumvention by using an alt
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Oct 27, 2017
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Sir Hound said:
What's the difference? It's worked on TFL for years, they even cap you to a weekly card.
Hopefully it comes to Amsterdam soon.
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The difference is that you can tap your phone to the reader WITHOUT any kind of authentication.

Without Express Transit, you need to use Face ID or Touch ID every time you reach the gates.
 

Deleted member 3542

User-requested account closure
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Oct 25, 2017
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Was just in london and didn't find out about this until I already bought a transit card the old fashioned way. They also have it so you can use a touchless credit/debit card in the same way where you can just hold out a card and pass on through, fare will be taken off automatically.
 
GameAddict411

GameAddict411

Member
Oct 26, 2017
8,513
In Portland Oregon they have a similar system, You can use Google pay or Apple Pay. Just tap your phone and you are good. It even subtracts your fares until you hit the daily, or weekly, or even monthly limits where you don't have to pay anymore. It's super awesome.
 
kami_sama

kami_sama

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,998
Fucking Tokyo subway lol
I ended up paying quite a lot only on journeys.

I was just in london and the daily caps are great.
 
donkey

donkey

Sumo Digital Dev
Verified
Oct 24, 2017
4,853
WorldofMiku said:
The difference is that you can tap your phone to the reader WITHOUT any kind of authentication.

Without Express Transit, you need to use Face ID or Touch ID every time you reach the gates.
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Ah that's cool. I just use my Apple Watch so I never really had to mess with Face/Touch ID via my iPhone with TFL. Cool for those that don't use the watch.
 

Deleted member 21709

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Does this work with Apple Watch too?

badcrumble said:
I'm so excited for NYC to have this. First time basically ever that we'll actually have the newest transit payment/pass technology instead of staying between 1 and 3 generations behind.

I've used this (with the express transit thing) on the test OMNY turnstiles with my iPhone and with my Apple Watch. It's great and it's just as fast as a perfectly-executed metro card swipe (really).

How well the system works in practice, though, depends a lot on how they handle the fare structure. NYCers will riot if you try to introduce zoned fares (partly because of the added cost, mostly because it'd slow down the exit from the station and we're impatient fuckers). I do hope, though, that they get rid of the monthly pass and instead just have an automatic monthly fare cap like London's system has. Ideally that'd allow them to jack the basic fare up (as a tax on tourists) while keeping the monthly cap relatively low for actual NYC residents.
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When is it coming to NYC?
 
WorldofMiku

WorldofMiku

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Oct 27, 2017
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donkey said:
Ah that's cool. I just use my Apple Watch so I never really had to mess with Face/Touch ID via my iPhone with TFL. Cool for those that don't use the watch.
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Well...you still need to double-tap the side button with your Apple Watch, but yeah I myself use Apple Watch as it's the quickest.

But once Express Transit is enabled on TfL, Apple Watch or iPhone, just tap the device on reader - done.
 
Broken Hope

Broken Hope

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,316
donkey said:
Ah that's cool. I just use my Apple Watch so I never really had to mess with Face/Touch ID via my iPhone with TFL. Cool for those that don't use the watch.
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Even on the watch it means you don't have to double press the side button, just present it to the reader. It will still be faster once TFL supports it.
 
Lump

Lump

One Winged Slayer
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Oct 25, 2017
15,980
WorldofMiku said:
The difference is that you can tap your phone to the reader WITHOUT any kind of authentication.

Without Express Transit, you need to use Face ID or Touch ID every time you reach the gates.
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I'm guessing that the difference is non-existent for the watch at least, then (since it's in a state of authentication until it leaves the wrist). Except maybe for a double button press.
 
OP
OP
RastaMentality

RastaMentality

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Oct 25, 2017
13,127
MillionStabs said:
Why not just use a Suica card?
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Because you dont have to go up to a physical station to reload it? I used the Suica card for a day in Japan then switched solely to Apple Pay Suica.

GameAddict411 said:
In Portland Oregon they have a similar system, You can use Google pay or Apple Pay. Just tap your phone and you are good. It even subtracts your fares until you hit the daily, or weekly, or even monthly limits where you don't have to pay anymore. It's super awesome.
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It's insane how Portland is leading the Bay Area by a country mile in transit & tech implementation.
 
Kthulhu

Kthulhu

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Oct 25, 2017
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sir_crocodile said:
I know, but the OP said the best way around the world.
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Part of that is because the card is using a proprietary implementation of NFC that makes it way faster than what you'd find on most CC and phones.

Most phones don't have it and those that do often are Japan exclusive versions. The newer iPhones and Apple Watches are an exception as Apple has made a special NFC chip that is compatible.
 
RuffMadman

RuffMadman

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
2,258
USA
I did this in Tokyo a couple of months ago in September. It was so easy and it worked on some vending machines as well.
 
badcrumble

badcrumble

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,732
inguef said:
When is it coming to NYC?
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according to wikipedia:

All subway stations would receive OMNY readers by October 2020, in preparation for the launch of a prepaid OMNY card by February 2021.[22][23]:13 OMNY vending machines would be installed by March 2022,[23]:13 and the MetroCard would be discontinued in 2023.[24] "

As of 2019, the MTA also plans to use OMNY in the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad over "the next several years".[36] In June 2019, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced it was in talks with the MTA to implement OMNY on the PATH by 2022.[37] There are no plans for OMNY to be used on NJ Transit, which plans to implement another new fare payment system with a different contractor.[38]
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Nothing about the AirTrain, but since that's operated by the Port Authority I assume it'd be the same as the PATH (or sooner).

All stations (and non-SBS buses, apparently - the Select Bus Service has different fares and doesn't have an announced timeline) are supposed to get the new turnstiles/readers by the end of 2020, but who knows when they'll actually phase in something like a monthly spend cap (you can't do a 'monthly pass' with a tap-to-pay system, just a cap; so new yorkers won't really use this at all until there's a replacement for the monthly cap).
 
SEBattleship

SEBattleship

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Oct 27, 2017
340
Chicago
You can do this in Chicago with Apple Pay. You do need to authenticate with face or touch ID, but takes a fraction of a second anyway.
 
the_bromo_tachi

the_bromo_tachi

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
1,365
Japan
Yeah, this has been around for years. I started using it last year and can never go back. I charge using my travel credit card, for points, to skip the lines and there's no need to whip something out of your pocket when you pay with the watch.

Though my only fear is when the battery runs out...never experienced before so don't really know the procedure.
 
Mii

Mii

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Oct 25, 2017
168
Tried the iOS express transit card in NYC for OMNY, was phenomenal. Excited for this to be rolled out everywhere in the city in the next year.
 

Fonst

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Nov 16, 2017
7,062
So you need to be extra careful about your cell now as people can use it to use mass transit just with swiping it?
 
OP
OP
RastaMentality

RastaMentality

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Oct 25, 2017
13,127
the_bromo_tachi said:
Yeah, this has been around for years. I started using it last year and can never go back. I charge using my travel credit card, for points, to skip the lines and there's no need to whip something out of your pocket when you pay with the watch.

Though my only fear is when the battery runs out...never experienced before so don't really know the procedure.
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As I said in the OP, Express Transit works when your phone's dead. There's a video example too.

badcrumble said:
according to wikipedia:



Nothing about the AirTrain, but since that's operated by the Port Authority I assume it'd be the same as the PATH (or sooner).

All stations (and non-SBS buses, apparently - the Select Bus Service has different fares and doesn't have an announced timeline) are supposed to get the new turnstiles/readers by the end of 2020, but who knows when they'll actually phase in something like a monthly spend cap (you can't do a 'monthly pass' with a tap-to-pay system, just a cap; so new yorkers won't really use this at all until there's a replacement for the monthly cap).
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OMNY's not going to be everywhere until they add monthly passes. MetroCard will be fully phased out in 2023.
 
badcrumble

badcrumble

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Oct 25, 2017
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RastaMentality said:
OMNY's not going to be everywhere until they add monthly passes. MetroCard will be fully phased out in 2023.
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Basically, the way that tap-to-pay stuff works, you actually CANNOT have a monthly pass. Not exactly.

The way it'd work is: rather than paying $127 for a monthly pass up front, the system detects when you've spent $127 on regular buses/subways with the same card and then stops charging you henceforth. So, the same actual cap on monthly spending, but processed differently. That's how it works in London, that's how it *has* to work when it's processing what is fundamentally a credit card transaction token, as far as I know.

Some older systems (Boston, the Bay Area iirc) obviously do have tappable monthly passes you can buy; but that's different and older tech from the Suica type stuff (those turnstiles can't just run a transaction from a credit card, for example).

I could be wrong, but that's my understanding of it.
 
OP
OP
RastaMentality

RastaMentality

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Oct 25, 2017
13,127
badcrumble said:
Basically, the way that tap-to-pay stuff works, you actually CANNOT have a monthly pass. Not exactly.

The way it'd work is: rather than paying $127 for a monthly pass up front, the system detects when you've spent $127 on regular buses/subways with the same card and then stops charging you henceforth. So, the same actual cap on monthly spending, but processed differently. That's how it works in London, that's how it *has* to work when it's processing what is fundamentally a credit card transaction token, as far as I know.

Some older systems (Boston, the Bay Area iirc) obviously do have tappable monthly passes you can buy; but that's different and older tech from the Suica type stuff (those turnstiles can't just run a transaction from a credit card, for example).

I could be wrong, but that's my understanding of it.
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It'd work by making you get OMNY passes in your Wallet, no? Doesn't seem that hard to implement and Im sure Apple would be down to make it interactive in the Wallet app.

Since NYC has weekly/monthly passes and flat prices, the cap will be a boon to lower income riders but not necessary for everyone with monthly passes.
 
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