PATH officials tapped digital chip enabled cards and phones Wednesday, commemorating added Total Access PATH Payment (TAPP) readers at the World Trade Center station and announcing the deployment at six key stations of the bistate train systems terminals.
A better example of the significance of the new fare payment system that accepts chip equipped credit, debit cards and mobile device wallets was when Rand Jacobs of Jersey City was directed to one of the new turnstiles by a PATH employee at the World Trade Center when he stopped to buy a fare card.
“It’s the convenience of keeping moving,” said Jacobs, who rides PATH from Journal Square which has TAPP already in service. “You can catch your train.”
PATH officials cited that was one of the reasons behind the roll out and expansion of the program that was launched in December.
“This is a key milestone with this rollout,” said Rick Cotton, Port Authority executive director. The authority operates PATH.
Ending lines at ticket vending machines like the one Jacobs avoided, is one of the goals behind TAPP, Clarelle DeGraffe, PATH director, said.
“It allows payment without using a MetroCard or SmartLink card,” she said. “For the first time, you can tap devices, a (smart) watch or chip card. It’s exciting.”
Cotton and DeGraffe ceremonially tapped their way on to PATH using the new fare readers.
TAPP readers are also on line at 33 Street in Manhattan, Hoboken, Journal Square and Newark-Penn Station and in the new Harrison station. TAPP readers were online in some of the stations prior to Wednesday’s announcement.
For riders, who’ve used the MTA’s OMNY tap and go fare readers, PATH’s TAPP system is identical in appearance and function, displaying a green GO sign with an arrow when the fare is paid.
However the discounts that the SmartLink card offers haven’t immediately followed the TAPP system. SmartLink provides a $2.60 single ride fare while TAPP charges the full $2.75 single fare rate. Officials said TAPP will catch up and offer similar discounts.
Cotton said the existing discounts offered on Smartlink will eventually “migrate” to the TAPP system. He didn’t have details on how that will work.
New York’s OMNY system handles discounts by offering free rides after a given number of continuous fare payments. That system requires a rider to use the same device or card for seven days they’ll automatically ride free after the 12th paid fare, or $34 in fares. That seven-day period starts over when a rider makes their first tap of the week.
It remains to be worked out whether the two systems will accept each others fare cards, Cotton said.
Similar to OMNY, PATH will offer a TAPP card that unbanked customers can load cash on to pay fares. The other question of whether TAPP will accept OMNY cards and MTA tap and go readers will accept PATH cards is a issue to addressed in the future, he said.
Although the fare readers look identical, PATH wanted its own payment system to handle its fare structure, Cotton said.
The TAPP rollout will move to the system’s remaining stations in New Jersey and New York by the fourth quarter of 2024, officials said.
PATH began testing the TAPP readers last December , converting turnstiles at stations at Journal Square in Jersey City and 33rd Street in Manhattan to accept the readers .
Previously, PATH fares could only be paid with SmartLink cards or pay-per-ride MetroCards. Plans call for both Smartlink and Metrocards to be phased out.
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Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X @CommutingLarry
