INIT e-fare system first in North America to support transit cards in Apple Wallet

May 2019, TriMet has announced that riders in the Portland-Vancouver metro area can now add a Hop Fastpass® to Apple Wallet and use their iPhone or Apple Watch to pay their fare. Hop is the first transit card in North America to launch in Apple Wallet. Portland-Vancouver residents can enjoy the tap-and-go convenience of Express Transit with Apple Pay leveraging the electronic fare system created by TriMet and INIT.

TriMet, C-TRAN and Portland Streetcar passengers can tap their iPhone and Apple Watch near any of the more than 1,200 INIT-supplied fare validators located at rail platforms, on buses and on streetcars around the region. With Apple Pay Express Transit there is no need to wake or unlock the device, open an app or use Face ID or Touch ID.

“TriMet has long been a leader in the transit industry, focused on the customer experience and ways to simplify riding transit,” said TriMet General Manager, Doug Kelsey. “With Hop Fastpass®, the first transit fare card in the US to launch in Apple Wallet, riders in the Portland-Vancouver area can simply tap-and-go by holding their iPhone or Apple Watch near a Hop reader.”

When a rider taps their iPhone or Apple Watch to any of the fare validators, the INIT system calculates the fare, validates the transaction in the customer’s online account, and displays the fare validation result to the rider in real-time. Boarding is fast and trouble-free.

TriMet, C-TRAN and Portland Streetcar riders can choose a variety of options to pay and ride: Hop card on iPhone and Apple Watch, debit or credit card on iPhone and Apple Watch, or physical Hop card. It frees riders from the worry associated with determining how many or what kind of tickets they should buy. They just tap, hop on and ride.

Additionally, Hop card on iPhone includes daily and monthly best-fare calculation for TriMet riders, so they never have to worry about when to buy a pass—the INIT system takes care of it for them.

“The Hop card in Apple Wallet is another innovative tool empowering public transit use in the region and showcasing the unique advantages of an account-based fare system. We all can be proud of this ground-breaking development,” says Thomas Schaich, INIT project engineer.

TriMet, INIT, moovel (becoming REACH NOW) and other partners worked to enable this experience within Apple Wallet. The virtual Hop card can be provisioned using the Hop Fastpass® App. For more information about Hop, visit trimet.org/applepay. For more information about the TriMet project by INIT, watch the video at https://u.nu/qvwl.