There’s a new, easier way to pay to ride public transit in San Diego County.
Commuters can now buy bus and train fares directly with the tap of a credit card or smartphone through a new contactless payment option that the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System and North County Transit District officially launched Friday, with thousands of visitors about to arrive for Pride and Comic-Con.
It’s available on all of the 92 bus routes and three trolley lines operated by MTS, along with the NCTD’s Coaster, Sprinter, Flex and Breeze services, and it offers the free transfers commuters already get.
Previously, riders had either to pay cash for their fare or use the Pronto card or app to load money for rides.
“Being able to implement something simple like this just makes it a little bit easier for everybody to be able to adopt a different way of getting around,” said Will Moore, the policy counsel at Circulate San Diego, a local think tank that has pushed for updates in the MTS payment system since 2016, including free transfers.
To pay using the new method, riders can tap their credit or debit card or other mobile payment option on a fare validator when they board a bus or train.
But the new system has limitations, and for many regular commuters, it might not be the most cost-effective option.
It’s currently only available for one-way adult fares for $2.50.
There isn’t an option yet for those who can receive a reduced fare — such as students, seniors and people with disabilities — or for riders who use fare-capping on Pronto.
Under fare-capping, a rider no longer has to pay up front for a $6 day pass or a $72 monthly pass.
You can just buy individual fares, and once you pay $6 in a day or $72 in a month, Pronto stops charging you for that day or month. No matter how many rides they take each day, the total daily or monthly fare won’t exceed that.
MTS said it is looking into adding features like youth and senior fares into future phases of the service.
But at least for now, the contactless payment is “really intended to really target people who don’t usually use transit very often, or for visitors who don’t really need a Pronto card,” explained NCTD spokesperson Colleen Windsor.
Most fares through the new option are eligible for free transfers during the two-hour period after a rider boards for the first time — except for riders trying to transfer to the Coaster.
The Coaster is more expensive than other modes of public transit, and the cost varies depending on the distanced traveled — so under the contactless payment option, riders can’t transfer to it for the same cost as other options, such as Breeze buses. They can, however, transfer from the Coaster to other modes.
In order to track the free two-hour transfers, each transaction is given a transaction ID at the transit tap points.
“This prevents riders from being charged twice during the two-hour transfer period,” MTS spokesperson Hector Zermeno said in an email.
Each rider must also only pay for their own fare, Zermeno added, so you can’t buy multiple people’s fares on the same credit card or mobile wallet. The new system also doesn’t currently accept American Express.
The program launched just in time for some of the county’s biggest summer events that draw in thousands of visitors.
Last year, MTS recorded an estimated 250,000 extra passenger trips during the four days of Comic-Con, Zermeno said — though he added that MTS typically sees a drop in ridership during the summer months.
NCTD sees an uptick in tourists taking public transit during the summer, Windsor said, and it wanted to roll out the contactless payment option before the start of the Del Mar horse racing season on Saturday.
The addition of contactless payments was “one of those next steps” after MTS and NCTD launched Pronto in 2021, especially as officials saw how popular contactless payment became during the pandemic, says Mark Olsen, another MTS spokesperson.
Riders can also still pay cash or buy a daily or monthly pass and upload money to the Pronto card or app.
“The contactless payment is great if you’re just on the go, but you can’t take advantage of the benefits of Pronto,” Olsen said. For regular riders, “Pronto is the way to go.”
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