Paying for Transit

 Just to be clear what this post is about: I'm not talking about whether we ought to pay for transit, or whether transit should be free. Go to Luxembourg if you want to try that. But generally speaking, others have done more on that than I'm prepared to do here. 

Rather, I'm talking about how we actually pay for transit, as transit users: how we go about providing our fare, proving it, etc. 

Because while I think generally there are some basic approaches that are standardized (fare gates/paid fare zones/conductor inspectors, for example, on trains, or pay at the front/pay before boarding for buses), there are nevertheless a lot of minor variations in how different cities and transit agencies do it that I think are worth highlighting, especially when seemingly minor changes make a big difference.

1. Make Your App Useable Or Ditch It

If you are going to have an app for your transit, please for the love of God make it work. While I'm glad to report that Milwaukee's app worked a lot better the last time I was there (as opposed to that post from Jan. 2025), it was still a barrier to use when it didn't work.

More broadly, though, there are small ways an app can be substantially less useful. I was just in Montréal, and Chrono would be dandy if I have an OPUS card already. But it can't sell you one, even a virtual one: it will only let you top up or add things to an existing card.

Yes, that may seem like a minor barrier; there are a lot of places to buy an OPUS card, plus if you're traveling temporarily you can buy "occasional" cards that don't require an OPUS at all--but then can't be on the app either. 

But those all require physical presence in Montréal; the defining feature (or at least one set of defining features) of an app is that it's something a hypothetical user of your system can download or access in advance of visiting and from a distance, precisely because of how apps and the internet work.

If your app isn't letting me do anything without having physically been there, or if it's seriously limited without that, then it's not only a missed opportunity, but it's going to give a (potentially false) negative signal to anyone from elsewhere trying to pay for transit. 

Let me be clear: paying for transit in Montréal was a breeze, for reasons I'll discuss more below. But Chrono gave a (fortunately misleading) major signal in the other direction when I realized that despite downloading it I still couldn't actually do much paying for transit without a machine in the city itself.

In fact, the one payment it could do is one that would have ended up costing me unnecessary money: I could buy a 747 ticket from the airport, which comes with a 1-day Zone A pass. But since I arrived Friday evening, my better bet (which the service person at the airport realized, which I appreciate) was a weekend pass, costing $5 CAD more but covering all the way to 5am Monday, thus saving the additional $11.25 CAD for both Saturday and Sunday.

So the app was actively making it harder to make correct and optimal payment choices.

Not a good look.

2. Mo' Ticket Machines, Mo' Ease of Use

Here's where I will compliment STM and the REM to the stars: it was never, ever difficult in Montréal to figure out how to pay for a ticket at a station or anywhere near a train.

Go down, find payment station, buy ticket. Merci beaucoup, c'est facile. 

This contrasts with, oh, let me just pick a system I'm familiar with at random, the absolute ridiculousness of trying to find a ticket machine near a Chicago Metra train.

Pictured: the only place I could get to let me buy a Metra ticket in Joliet: on the train itself, from the conductor.

I've encountered closed ticket offices, non-functional ticket machines, and ticket machines hidden a five minute walk through a busy station away from the actual trains themselves (looking at you, Chicago Union Station: why is there not a single ticket machine in the very obviously empty space right next to the departing trains?) or on only one side of a long island platform (come on 57th St. Station).

Entertainingly, due to the fairly reasonable Ventra app that Chicago has incorporated a variety of services on Pace, Metra, and the CTA into, it's much easier to buy a ticket on your phone than physically on the Metra--though God help you if you switch phones and don't have the physical Ventra card for future reference. 

Make it easier to buy a ticket, I'm begging you: I just want to pay you for my ride.

3. A Simpler Fare Is A Friendly Fare

Look, I get why WMATA has a complex, distance-based fare system. 

This above is in a different tax authority than this below:

And I didn't even take any Virginian pictures last time I was there, so even that understates the complexity of how DC as a metropolitan area has to figure out how to get its public transit funded. I get it.

But the easier it is for me to figure out what my fare will be, the easier it is for me to use the public transit, and therefore the more likely it is that I will actually pay that fare.

The same goes for transit modes: if I know that the light rail, the subway, and the bus will all charge me different amounts of money to go at different speeds to the same place, it becomes a tax on my mind to figure out which to take when and how.

Now, this can be balanced: a good day-pass, weekend pass, weekly pass, monthly pass, annual pass, etc. can help simplify things even if the occasional single trip is more complex. And that can be a good balance if you want your system to capture the difference between a long frequent trip that's costing you a lot of train time and personnel and the occasional tourist who is just taking in the touristy areas--or conversely between rewarding someone who is taking your system all the time while soaking the rich tourist trade. 

But at the core: the simpler the system of fares is to figure out, the more likely I'll bother, and thus the more likely you'll actually see that money.

What do you think? What does the place you use transit the most do right or wrong when it comes to payments? What would you like to see changed?