NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Apple has finally made good on plans to enable fare payments through Apple Pay with the closed-loop Ventra card from the Chicago Transit Authority, or CTA, the latest major closed-loop card the tech giant has enabled in recent months.
Apple had originally said in March 2019 that it would enable Apple Pay users to tap to pay for fares with virtual closed-loop Ventra cards later in 2019. That didn’t happen. Meanwhile, Apple added other closed-loop cards in Asia, including the Octopus card in Hong Kong; and, more recently, cards in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.
One difference from most of the cities or countries where Apple has created digital versions of closed-loop cards, is that the CTA already supports open-loop fare payments, as well. It was the first major transit authority to do so in the U.S., back in 2013. This enabled riders to pay with either contactless credit and debit cards–of which there were few on issue in the U.S. until around 18 months ago–and, starting in 2014, credit and debit card credentials in Pays wallets, such as Apple Pay. Google Pay and Samsung Pay followed to enable open-loop fare payments in Chicago, and one or both of these payments services are expected to get virtual Ventra cards, as well. That is expected in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, too.
