During a recent meeting, the ORCA Joint Board quietly approved implementation of a long-desired feature for the One Regional Card for All (ORCA) system: the ability to pay fares with a contactless (“tap-to-pay”) credit or debit card or a smartphone mobile wallet. This marks a major step along the slower-than-expected implementation of the “next generation” of ORCA payments, which kicked off in 2022.
The rollout of “ORCA 2.0” began with the new myORCA.com website and mobile app, which launched in May 2022. The website and app marked the switch to an accounts-based payment system, which enabled users to almost-instantly use fares and passes purchased online or via mobile app instead of from ticket vending machines.
In 2024, ORCA and Sound Transit announced the ability to save and access ORCA cards in Google Wallet, which allows Android and Wear OS device users to use their devices to pay fare. To prevent card sharing, adding an already-existing ORCA card to Google Wallet deactivates the physical card permanently. Although new “virtual” ORCA cards still cost $3, the “card” comes preloaded with $2.75, making the real cost of buying a new virtual card only $0.25. Correction: new virtual cards cost $3 to create but do not come pre-loaded with $2.75. Like any other ORCA card, they can carry a negative balance of up to -$2.75. Some users apparently treat this as available balance; the Seattle Transit Blog does not encourage carrying negative balance on ORCA cards.
Until recently, there was no timeline for a similar virtual card implementation for Apple Wallet users (the iOS equivalent of Google Wallet) or the use of NFC-equipped credit and debits cards (referred to as “open payments”). However, a recent Action Item of the ORCA Joint Board meeting on January 14, 2024, approved a change order for the systems contractor, INIT, to implement open payments prior to the start of the World Cup in 2026 (June to July), when Seattle will host six matches of tournament.
Implementation of open payments seems to be one of the few remaining improvements left for our fare payment system. Short of abolishing fares completely, the biggest improvement remaining may be adoption of fare capping, but that’s more of a fare policy than a technology.
Would love to see European style tall fare gates next. The ones that are open by default and fully close it no payment is detected. This on top of tougher penalties for evasion similar to what I saw in France where someone got a no second chance ticket for evasion. Now that would be an improvement in fare recovery rates.
You’re all in about fare gates without even a second thought about maintaining accessibility.
What we need is more fare enforcement. Not obstructive gates that cause mobility issues.
Fare gates don’t impede mobility, every modern fare gate setup has multiple accessible gates that are wider to allow wheelchairs and lower mobility people to use the system with ease.
Do they have a staffed booth that can open a wheelchair-accessible gate like San Francisco? Do they have it at bus stops, not just metro stations?
You don’t need staffing for accessible gates. You’re thinking American. You design an accessible entrance with automation. We already do this all the time in public buildings. This isn’t a hard problem to solve and it is something that has already been solved even in other American cities. You don’t need gates at open bus stations. The driver already is the staff and the bus gate already is the gate.
Thanks, Paul – I’m surprised anyone who has used metro systems elsewhere thinks this can’t be done – it can, and should. If you’ve ever pushed a stroller or wheeled luggage in any one of a number of systems, you know about and have used these gates (most are the closed system/open on tap). Somehow, just up the road, Vancouver has managed to incorporate them.
I would recommend staffing – or at least security who has the knowledge to assist and operate the gates if necessary – at high-volume stations, but this isn’t strictly necessary. Nearly all of these stations already have a security presence, to Sound Transit’s credit. I don’t think a draconian approach to fare collection would be strictly necessary once gates are installed as most people when confronted with a barrier will just pay. Spot checks on trains would still be appropriate with an explanation/warning as is currently done (I’d recommend a $5 on-the-spot fare for “gate jumpers” who have means of payment but didn’t tap, even today – this is also common on other systems). My guess is that these will be able to be reduced in time as fare evasion decreases during to use of the gates.
“(I’d recommend a $5 on-the-spot fare for “gate jumpers” who have means of payment but didn’t tap, even today – this is also common on other systems). ”
It’s more like $35-50 minimum plus the cost of your fare to continue your journey on other systems. To compare here’s the fines for other metro systems
– Paris €50
– London £50 (0-5 days from issue)/£100 (6+ days from issue)
– Berlin €60
– Brussels €107
– Madrid €40
– Rome €54.90 (0-5 days from issue)/€104.90 (6+ days from issue)
– Stockholm 1,850 SEK + cost of ticket
– Copenhagen 750 DKK
– Sydney $65
– Hong Kong HK$1,000
Some might say this is harsh but I think in some ways it’s actually more fair and equitable to everyone.
You have a responsibility and due diligence to pay your fare and transit fare enforcement in return upholds the social contract for everyone to respect the ride and pay their fare. You generally need some level of a moderately harsh fine to deter repeat offenders. As they often cause other problems for the system at large.
I get the importance of having empathy and compassion. But at the same time, such tactics can veer into coddling and being too comfortable with letting problems fester rather than nip it in the bud. I’d rather have tough but fair enforcement than giving too much leeway in terms of fare evasion.
Each passanger has the knowledge available for how much a fare costs, the bevy of reduced fare programs, the many free fare vouchers that are given out in the case of homeless people, and the multiple means to pay your fare. If you’re evading fare because you’re too cheap to pay $3 or even apply for the ORCA Lift or $1 RRFP card, then that really is on you tbh.
In most cases for situations like the fare reader malfunctions or transfer near the end of your 2 hour transfer window but get fined, you can generally appeal your case in such situations with proper documentation. In general, most agencies don’t want to fine people in situations like this and understand that things can occur. But they still have to maintain some level of decorum for fare enforcement at the same time.
nothing about putting ORCA into Apple wallet?
That, apparently, is still being worked out.
Apple is the blocker here. They require agencies and fare systems vendors to do one-by-one implementations. Apple has a set city-by-city roadmap and requires each project to go through a full testing cycle under Apple’s supervision. Google, by contrast, has opened up their spec and so a fare collection vendor (INIT in this case) can implement without needing Google’s blessing and/or heavy involvement.
That said, Apple is starting to open this up in Europe, so hopefully might see some loosening of the reigns in North America.
Thanks for the insight!
Will contactless debit/credit card payment do anything more than pay a single fare?
How will fare ambassadors be able to read the card?
Same questions for smartphone payment.
Also will those paying with a smartphone be able to cheat by activating a payment when they see a fare ambassador?
Will all the buses throughout the Metro fleet have rear-door readers, with this upgrade, installed?
Will this upgrade require replacement of all ORCA readers?
Open Payments will allow someone to use a tap-enabled credit/debit card or mobile wallet the same way as they would use e-purse on an ORCA card.
If the implementation is actually similar to other implementations elsewhere, fare ambassadors would “read” the payment method the same way they read ORCA cards as a payment method.
Smartphone users already have a method to pay without tapping a reader, via the Transit Go app.
It appears this upgrade not will require replacement of existing ORCA readers. I will reach out to Metro to see if they are including addition of ORCA readers to the rear doors of all of their buses.
Thanks for the article and the answers.
I wonder if the ORCA Pod will see TransitGo as a loophole to get around consistent fare payment, and eventually retire it. Given Metro’s political inability to retire immortal paper transfers, probably not.
I doubt there’s much overlap between Transit Go users and fare evaders.
@Mike Orr
There is in that people use transit go as an “oh no here comes enforcement/ambassadors” and then quickly activate a ticket that they have saved for when they see anti evasion measures.
Do they do that though? Is there any evidence Transit Go users overlap substantially with fare evaders? Or is this an unfounded guess that theoretically they might? Are people who go to the trouble of getting Transit Go the kind of people not to pay unless a fare inspector is coming?
TransitGo is easier than collecting all the colors and letters.
Even if people trying to game the fare system to minimize paying fares aren’t using TransitGo now, it may become the evasion tactic of first choice when paper transfers and other loopholes are gone.
@Mike Orr
This is a common-ish phenomenon that I see on the trains.
Next time you see Fare Ambassadors on the light rail, try and see how many people pull their phones out when they see that inspectors have boarded. While not a lot of transit go users do this, it’s more than you might expect and it is a loophole for people who are quick enough to exploit it.
1. Contactless card payments work exactly the same as ORCA card payments. The card must be tapped at a card reader. Only a single fare is paid per card.
2. Fare ambassadors read the card the same way that they read an ORCA card. The rider taps the card they used against the ambassador’s reader and the reader will tell the ambassador whether this card was used within the last two hours in the ORCA system.
3. This is true for smartphone payments as well.
4. The smartphone will need to be tapped against the actual physical card reader, same as an ORCA card. Fare cannot be purchased virtually via this system.
5 & 6. All ORCA readers are physically capable of accepting smartphone or debit/credit payments currently; this was an expected feature of ORCA 2.0. The holdup is not hardware but unspecified back-end difficulties in implementation.
I haven’t heard if Metro plans to provide rear door boarding for all buses.
Potential privacy issue: Will the fare ambassador’s program be able to see other credit card transactions besides the fare purchase?
@Mike
that’s not how it works. they don’t have access to the credit card database aka chase/boa etc…
they’ll just check whether or not it was swiped/tapped on the sound transit database. aka credit card *7234 was tapped 10 minutes ago at xyz bus
Orca readers have been installed at the back door of many coaches already, and unless something has changed, the entire fleet is supposed to be outfitted “soon” to allow all-door boarding system-wide. (Which, as an operator, I hate. Too many safety implications.)
Has ATU 587 discussed all-door boarding among its members?
“Will this upgrade require replacement of all ORCA readers?”
My understanding is that harware-wise it is the same old NFC technology.
I believe the cost to implement is mostly backend like replacing software and upgrading enterprise database etc.
The current readers are the”new” readers in this case. The switch a couple years ago with black ORCA cards and the more rectangular readers was in anticipation of this open payment transition, because the old readers weren’t capable of that.
I don’t think the Google virtual cards come preloaded. You might be confusing this with the negative balance allowance of up to -$2.75, but that’s no different than regular physical cards.
I suspect the negative balance allowance, and the cost of a virtual ORCA account, have to stick around because of Sounder’s distance-based fares.
Hm. The pre-loading was reported to me by an Android user but they might have have been mistaken. I don’t have an Android, so I can’t personally confirm whether or not it’s true. I’ll clarify the post.
However, if the negative balance allows for a $2.75 or $3 transit ride, then the practical effect is the same. We shouldn’t be encouraging people to ride with negative e-purse balances, though.
Finally some news, but it’s wild how long this has taken. “Sometime before the World Cup in 2026”? Sheesh…
Not to be confused with the 2025 Club World Cup, of which Lumen Field will be a host site in June and July, and for which large visiting crowds will also be expected.
This will be a test of the region’s hotel capacity, Amtrak’s adaptability (or lack thereof) to shuttle large visiting crowds between host cities, and the willingness of the State Department to grant Visas to all the visiting players, who come from countries all over the world, not just those of the 22 visiting clubs. This will be, by far, the largest ever Club World Cup, with its first-ever group stage, and the Sounders at least getting to be on the same pitch in non-friendly matches with Botafogo (the reigning Brazilian and Copa Libertadores champions), Paris St Germain, and Atletico Madrid.
That’s all assuming the Club World Cup even happens.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/nov/19/club-world-cup-gianni-infantino-fifa-tournament-expansion-2025
The fact that those of us on iOS *still* cannot simply tap our phones to pay is an indictment of ST’s ridiculous bureaucratic process. In one of the tech hubs of the US, contactless payments on a new light rail system are taking years to roll out for one of the major mobile OSes? And this needs board level approval which just came?
It’s 2025 – catch up, Sound Transit.
Why should ST support a payment method that enriches third-party credit-card companies and big tech at the expense of fare revenue? Credit card companies charge a large commission on each transaction, and that money comes out of the amount you paid to the seller (in this case ST).
I don’t want to speak for Rick but I believe all we want is to be able to add ORCA to Apple Wallet to be able to use our phones to pay like Google Pay users currently can. That functionality would not cause the expenses you reference as it would be the same as tapping a physical ORCA card.
There’s payment processing overhead no matter what they do. Credit card fees apply on the Orca website also. Cash handling involves physical labor, which costs money.
Even if credit card fees are higher with Apple Pay than other payment methods, just pass the cost onto the rider and let the rider decide whether they care enough about saving the 25 cents to use another payment method. There is no benefit to the public to simply block it.
Credit card fees are typically a minimum of 50 cents and something like 3% of the price.
What’s the per-transaction operational overhead of counting, collecting, protecting, and depositing cash?
What’s the per-transaction operational overhead of counting, collecting, protecting, and depositing cash?”
That has been a basic part of doing business forever. The seigniorage on the cash goes to the federal government. In contrast, credit cards and app payments are a third-party for-profit middleman trying to get a piece of the action. Credit-card fees for individual single rides would particularly add up. A fully cashless society leads to a number of vulnerabilities.
Cash exchanges cost service hours and reliability/speed. Each cash transaction only takes a few seconds, but it adds up quickly when there are a large number of people boarding.
Credit card fees are negotiated with the companies that operate them. It is the opposite of net neutrality. If you are Walmart or Amazon you negotiate a very low rate. If you are Joe’s Bar and Grill you are screwed — you pay a bundle every time someone uses a credit card. It is a real problem for small businesses.
In this case Metro is huge and probably negotiated a low fee. You can pay cash or write a check to fill your ORCA card but as asdf2 pointed out most people pay with their credit card already. The only possible difference would be a per transaction fee and I could see that being negotiated away.
The cost to process cash is complicated. Apparently it costs Metro about 25 cents per fare. But I don’t know if that includes the delay to the riders or just converting the cash into a different form (the bus drivers don’t get paid in quarters). There is also the paper transfer system as well as the cash boxes themselves. Apparently the cash boxes are old and replacing them would cost $29 million. (https://seattletransitblog.com/2022/04/26/eliminating-cash-fares/)
Not to be overly bureaucratic, but the ORCA card project is run by the ORCA Joint Board, not Sound Transit. King County Metro is co-lead on the Board. Pierce Transit, Community Transit, Everett Transit, Kitsap Transit, and Washington State Ferries also get a vote.
Thanks for the correction Brent. I knew ST didn’t operate the ORCA card but I didn’t know the structure.
“To prevent card sharing, adding an already-existing ORCA card to Google Wallet deactivates the physical card permanently.”
I don’t like this. This means that if your phone battery dies, or if you get locked out of your Google account, you’re not allowed to have a physical card in your wallet to fall back on. There are also situations like a one-way trip home after a jogging run where it’s easier to carry the physical card than a smartphone.
What harm is there in having the option? Are they really that paranoid about losing revenue to people with monthly passes sharing cards, which they can do anyway with physical cards? If so, card sharing should produce telltale patterns in trip data, which can be scanned by automated software to detect abuse (for example, if the same pass is used at opposite ends of town, less than 5 minutes apart).
It’s probably more about two people using the same card simultaneously than about giving the card to somebody else.
It’s surprising to deactivate the physical card though. I’d have thought it should be available as a backup.
One corollary of this is if you get a separate physical card and virtual card tied to different accounts, any pass or e-purse you put on one won’t be available on the other. Thus leaving you with no recourse if your phone battery dies except to ask the bus driver for a free ride or tell the fare inspector your phone stopped working.
“This means that if your phone battery dies, or if you get locked out of your Google account, you’re not allowed to have a physical card in your wallet to fall back on.”
As best as I can tell, the way the HOP card works here is that happens only if you convert an existing card to a virtual card. You can still have multiple cards on an account, and some of those can be virtual cards.
So, you could have a backup physical card and a second card that’s a virtual card for phone payment.
As best as I can tell, most of same software is being used for ORCA 2 as with TriMet’s HOP card. I would think it would work the same or similar.
Yeah, that would make sense. They just don’t want to have two “cards” (a phone and an ORCA card) in two places being treated like one card. Otherwise it would be pretty easy to get some free rides.
I think this provides the greatest benefit to travelers and folks who use the transit system infrequently. It will hopefully lead us to eventually get rid of cash fares altogether which would make the agencies more efficient.
Speaking of travelers, anyone know how many agencies are supported with Google Wallet? I’ve never used it, but it looks fairly straightforward.
Personally I’m perfectly happy carrying my RRFP orca with me and tapping it as needed. I only hope that doesn’t go away in the name of progress and pleasing apple users. It’s honestly not that onerous. I’d prefer thet keep rhe trains running.
Yeah how about turnstiles next. I’m done with the honor system. Humans cannot be trusted to be honest.
It is not an honor system. It is proof of payment. Turnstyles are not perfect either: https://nypost.com/2025/01/17/us-news/nyc-subway-straphanger-jumps-over-mta-new-turnstile-spikes-at-manhattan-station/.
Tbf, it can also mean fare gates. Like its such a generic term that means multiple different types of gates that people use the term interchangeably
“barrier gate that requires a valid form of fare/payment/identification to enter”
Turnstiles are old school. The swinging doors at the monorail stations allow wheelchairs to get through, I believe.
You are correct, turnstiles would reduce fare evasion. You are also correct that we a de facto honor system. But, it depends. Some transit, like the Seattle streetcar, are completely on the honor system. Rapid Ride a little bit less so. Link, even less than that, and is more of a proof of payment system, because there is at least a chance of encountering a Fare checker.
Proof of payment is generally more cost-efficient than building and maintaining faregates.
Also, how would you put gates around the at-grade stations such that folks don’t simply walk around them?
I’m not advocating for installing fare gates. Commenter “mytummyhurts” is. I just said fare gates would reduce fare evasion.
“Proof of payment is generally more cost-efficient than building and maintaining faregates.”
It’s a wash in my opinion, there are some places where proof of payment saves money and other places where fare gates are cost effective. Vancouver SkyTrain was a proof of payment till 2016 with the implementation of Compass card and fare gates. Fare evasion dropped a lot from implementation.
No fare gates make sense in like Vienna, Munich, Zurich, Copenhagen, Oslo, etc because of high trust culture, you’re generally on a subscription already either with work, school, or pensioner, and in turn means cost savings on staff and equipment.
No
The majority of ORCA fare revenue has been through business accounts, and the majority of that through ORCA Business Passport, in which an employer gives free passes to all of its employees.
On top of that, every student at UW-Seattle gets free passes through their Husky Card.
Getting fare revenue back up is really about convincing more business and colleges to extend these benefits.
You are also correct that we a de facto honor system.
No it’s not. That is like saying the subway is a de facto honor system. All you have to do is jump the gate. Same goes for using counterfeit money. Most of the time nothing happens and at worse they won’t accept it. That is not what “honor system” means. If you get busted you pay a fine.
No fare gates make sense in like Vienna, Munich, Zurich, Copenhagen, Oslo, etc because of high trust culture
Prior to the pandemic we had very high fare compliance. Fare compliance got better when San Fransisco went full Proof-of-Payment on their buses. There are a host of factors that go into it, like the risk of getting caught, what happens when you get caught, the feeling that everyone else is paying (or not). Given the relatively high cost of gates and the relatively low ridership I doubt that gates is the way to go for us.
We can’t install fare fares for all the buses. Some stations also don’t have room for them.
But maybe fare gates can be installed at some stations where there is the space to do so and the ridership to justify the capital cost. Check out the fare gates at the monorail stations to see how it can be done.
One of the under-the-radar improvements to the fare payment system is going on on paratransit.
King County Metro Access has been allowing its approved paratransit riders to register an ORCA card account to their paratransit account, for several years. The vans do not have ORCA readers, but the driver can see whether the trip is pre-paid, and then state the fare if it is not.
Subsidized Annual Passholders show as free. As do youth under 19, without needing an ORCA card.
Community Transit recently started doing the same thing, and will begin honoring the Subsidized Annual Pass on both its public buses and paratransit on March 1.
I expect that Everett, Pierce, and Kitsap paratransit are not far behind, now that Metro and CT have shown that this works between agencies.
However, there is the matter of the different fares among the paratransit agencies. Metro and PT DART each charge $1.75. ET and KT each charge $2. CT charges $2.50, even while CT has the highest sales tax rate at its disposal. At least one Snohomish County transit advocacy group called for lowering CT’s paratransit fare during the hearing on CT’s upcoming fare changes.
If all the paratransit agencies were to accept registered ORCA accounts, and then align their paratransit fares at, say, $2, the ORCA Pod could then create a paratransit-passengers-only $4 Regional Day Pass, covering the $2 of fare. This would be similar to what Sound Transit is proposing (and taking public comment on through January 31) for the $6 Regional Day Pass covering $3 of fare, and the $2 reduced-fare Regional Day Passes, covering $1 of fare (proposed to take effect March 1).
I really wish that we eliminated the tap requirement for people with valid passes. I.E, Business pass, Husky/College pass, etc.
Many of the instances of evasion that I have witnessed have come from these sources simply forgetting to tap in or rushing and not tapping. People are confused because the pass is prepaid, but you still have to tap because the money is doled out proportionally to agencies based on what services you tap on to.
If the pass was akin to Berlin, where you only need to show that the payment is on the card, then both the boarding (and fare inspection process) would be much more efficient. I guess that the revenue sharing agreement would need to be renegotiated, but it would be a lot easier for all parties involved.
Asking people to tap is fine, it gives more accurate rider data that way. Which is useful for agencies in terms of transit restructures but also for funding.
Better placement of fare readers would be a better solution to the problem you say. Like making a pole that has 2 readers instead of 1 and they were all placed as if they create something similar to a fare gate barrier instead of them being weirdly shunted into random places without much thought.
I’m fine with expecting everyone using a card to tap.
But if someone with clear-and-obvious proof of pre-payment is caught not tapping, all they should get is a friendly reminder.
The fare ambassadors can collect data on failure to tap, and the data can be used for a back-office formula-based correction on the divvying up of revenue.
The Agency’s view on that is that’s what the two warnings are for, so on the third time someone forgets then it becomes a fine, even with the prepayment.
Better tap placement is paramount. The airport is particularly egregious about terrible orca reader placement though more validators will be installed in the coming months there, that’s what all the cones are on the mezzanine by the yellow line. Westlake is also terrible as there are only two readers per staircase. In the future sound transit needs to run a line under the floor with a row of tap stations (basically a faregate without the gate) so that people can tap simultaneously. It’s gonna be really bad once the world cup comes around.
In that case, why not cease warning riders with C&OPoP, remove a warning for non-payers, and actually deter fare evasion?
“In the future sound transit needs to run a line under the floor with a row of tap stations (basically a faregate without the gate)”
It has that at Roosevelt and retrofitted Westlake with it last summer, to name two I know for sure.
I think adding debit/credit card contactless payment option will certainly help some people pay their fare.
Often time (in Downtown Seattle) I see operators let tourists-looking people board without paying when they were busy finding change from empty pocket at front door.
Many tourists who barely take transit in their hometown have little preparation to ride public transit.
“To prevent card sharing, adding an already-existing ORCA card to Google Wallet deactivates the physical card permanently. “
Why prevent card sharing?
I want to be able to pay someone else’s fare with MY ORCA CARD.
Who cares who pays as long as the fare
is paid ?
Prevents sharing of day/month passes.
If you have a pass on the ORCA card / account, then having two people using the account simultaneously results in the agencies being cheated out of the revenue for a second pass.