The Regional Transportation District is planning to launch a credit and debit card tap-to-pay system on its buses and trains in 2025.
The agency’s current smart fare payment system, dubbed MyRide, requires passengers to pre-pay for individual tickets or day and monthly passes. They then spend that balance through the MyRide App or by tapping their MyRide cards at validators on buses and at train stations.
Next year, customers will be able to cut out the MyRide App and card altogether by just tapping their credit or debit card, or using a mobile device equipped with Apple Pay or a similar service.
“RTD is really focused on the customer experience through convenience as well as the ease of using the system,” RTD Chief Financial Officer Doug MacLeod told CPR News. “That's really our goal.”
Tap-to-pay systems have been common in European transit for years, where banks have issued contactless credit and debit cards for longer than their counterparts in the U.S. But more state-side transit agencies, including those in Boston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, are now joining the trend.
RTD’s upgrade to its MyRide system in 2022 placed new validators in buses and at train stations, making it capable of accepting contactless credit and debit card payments. But the agency was also in the midst of a major fare overhaul that went into effect early in 2024 and wanted to figure out how to enable fare discounts for tap-to-pay users, so it held off on enabling it.
“We felt it wasn't quite mature, not right for prime time,” said Monika Treipl-Harnke, RTD’s senior manager of revenue.
When the tap-to-pay system launches next year, Treipl-Harnke said customers will have an “almost-identical” experience to the MyRide system today — including fare capping, transfers, monthly passes and discounts. She expects most tap-to-payers will be existing riders.
One incoming board member — a longtime MyRide user – hopes the new system will attract new customers too.
“It will be an incredible step forward for RTD and in the way that the average person who never uses the system interacts with RTD,” Chris Nicholson, director-elect for District A, told the board this week.
RTD estimated it will cost $280,000 to start and run the system in 2025, according to its just-approved $1.2 billion budget.
Treipl-Harnke said the agency is also committed to keeping its most low-tech form of payment, too: cash.
Correction (Dec. 6, 2024): A previous version of this story failed to note that the current MyRide system allows for usage as a guest, without registration. The story has also been updated to reflect that Apple Pay and similar services can be used with the new system and that RTD managers expect the new service will mostly be used by existing riders, not just current MyRide users.
