Smart Cards, Fare Caps, and Expanded Open Payment Coming to Portland/Vancouver

TriMet, the Portland Streetcar, and C-Tran (Vancouver, WA) have announced the name of the new smart fare payment system coming in 2017: Hop Fastpass. The name derives from a community engagement process in which Portlanders wanted to promote their craft brewery industry.

The Hop Fastpass will be groundbreaking, at least as far as transit systems in the US go, in several ways:

A daily fare cap: Once riders reach the value of a day pass (currently $5, or $2.50 for reduced-fare payers), that is all they have to pay that day.A monthly fare cap: Once riders reach the value of a monthly pass (currently $100, or $28 for reduced-fare payers), they won't have to pay any more that month.The card readers will also accept Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and contactless bank cards.

The daily and monthly caps will only be available on the Hop card.

TriMet unveiled their mobile ticket app a year ago, and have sold over 5 million mobile tickets. Dallas Area Rapid Transit was the first transit agency in the US to implement mobile payment, but originally on its trains only. TriMet is the first to do so on trains and buses. DART is now offering mobile payment on buses as well.