MasterCard and Citibank Begin Trial of Contactless Credit Cards in New York Subways
MasterCard
and Citibank Begin Trial of Contactless Credit Cards in New
York Subways
MasterCard and Citibank yesterday began a six-month trial of
contactless credit card payments at select stations within the
New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) transit
system. To evaluate how the "Tap & Go" payments
perform within a busy subway environment, pre-selected Citi
credit card and Citibank customers are using the contactless
cards at Lexington Avenue Line 4, 5, 6 stations, between the
138th Street stations in the Bronx, two stations in Queens,
and Borough Hall Station in Brooklyn.
Participants
in the trial are able to pay their fares by tapping their contactless
Citi card on a specially-equipped reader built into the subway
turnstile. The question in the trial is whether subway riders
will prefer to use such contactless technology over the current
system of purchasing subway cards, and can the system be administered
effectively without undue confusion.
