The long awaited New York City subway contactless launch is set for 31 May.
Contactless will debut on subway stations along the 4/5/6 lines between Grand Central and the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center station.
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At the same time, tap and go will also go live on all Staten Island buses.
Over time, all New York City subway lines and bus routes will accept contactless payments.
The roll out of the New York City subway contactless offering is a long time coming.
For example, Japan’s contactless Suica card launched way back in 2001. And London’s Oyster card debuted in 2003, supplemented by contactless credit and debit cards in 2014.
New York City subway contactless: cards, mobile and wearables
New York City’s MTA is the first US transit agency to implement contactless payments using Visa’s global transit framework. This allows passengers to use any Visa credential such as a Visa contactless card, mobile device or wearable.
In addition, it offers the same level of security as any other payment processed on Visa’s global payment network.
Contactless payments have shaped the way consumers pay all over the world. It saves valuable time and delivers a fast, easy and secure way to pay,” says Dan Sanford, Global Head of Contactless Payments Visa.
In spite of the slow roll out of contactless across the US compared to the UK, banks such as Chase are ahead of the curve.
With 20 million contactless credit cards in circulation, Chase is well placed to tap into the new way to pay.
And according to Chase, the issue of contactless debit cards are on track for this summer.
“Customers have been quick to adopt tap to pay. We’ve already seen it exceeding digital wallet use for customers who have contactless cards,” says Abeer Bhatia, president of Card Marketing, Pricing and Innovation at Chase. “
“Now they will be able to tap to pay for their daily transit needs. And they will experience how quick and easy it is to checkout thanks to contactless cards.”
