INIT Celebrates World’s First Account-Based Regional Virtual Transit Fare Card Within Google Pay

April 17, 2018
TriMet, C-TRAN and Portland Streetcar passengers can use the virtual smart card within Google Pay to pay their transit fare. TriMet, INIT, and moovel worked to enable this final development with Google Pay.

The first regional account-based virtual transit fare card has reached full launch status and can now be used by riders in the Portland-Vancouver Metro Area. TriMet, C-TRAN and Portland Streetcar passengers can use the virtual smart card within Google Pay to pay their transit fare. TriMet, INIT, and moovel worked to enable this final development with Google Pay.

The core intelligence of the Hop system is INIT’s back-office management tool, MOBILEvario. When a rider taps their Android device with the virtual card to any of the 1,200 INIT fare validators, MOBILEvario calculates the fare, validates the transaction against the back office account, and displays the fare validation result to the rider in real-time.

“The use of virtual transit cards marks the beginning of a new era in the fare collection world,” said Thomas Schaich, INITs project engineer. “The vision of a secure transit payment solution without carrying a card has now finally been realized.”

Having the ability to pay with a regular Hop card, virtual card, contactless bank card, or mobile wallet frees riders from the worry associated with how many, or what kind of tickets they should buy. They simply tap, hop on and ride. The virtual Hop card also includes daily and monthly fare capping.