PORTLAND, Ore. — UPDATE: You can add a Hop Fastpass card to your Apple Wallet on your iPhone or Apple Watch to pay for rides on TriMet, C-Tran and Portland Streetcar. TriMet says Hop Fastpass is the first transit fare card in the country to be available in Apple Wallet.
Original story below:
If you have any paper TriMet tickets stuffed away, use them!
TriMet is getting rid of most paper tickets and passes by the end of the year. You can also say goodbye to their mobile ticketing app.
The aim is to get people to convert to Hop Fastpasses.
They want you to use these plastic Hop cards for a day or month pass or pay using your smart phone. You just have to remember to tap it at the digital reader inside or outside the MAX, streetcar or bus.
It's a sign of the times with regular riders making the switch to the plastic and virtual Hop cards.
“I just got a Hop card because it seems like an easier thing to do,” Portland resident Tristan Dodson said. "Mine is on my phone and I have the card.”
"I did just receive my Hop pass actually,” Portlander Austin Buck said. "Looks like you just go register at that website, get it all up and running.”
Buck, a loyal MAX rider, has always used the TriMet mobile ticketing app, which is being phased out and will soon be eliminated.
“I love it, it’s super convenient. And I hear they're getting rid of it. I don’t know how I feel about that, actually," Buck said.
Hop passes have been around for a couple years.
"Every time you're going to go for the train you just tap and go,” TriMet spokeswoman Roberta Altstadt said.
There are benefits you can't get with the old paper tickets.
"Among those is earning a month pass and day pass as you go so you don't need to pay the upfront cost,” Altstadt explained.
That means your fare is capped at the daily or monthly cost and cash spent doesn't go to waste.
“You can load your Hop card using cash or credit, you can do it online and do it over the phone,” Altstadt said. “If you don’t have a credit card, no problem. We have 500 local retailers we’re working with. You can go into those retailers and add money to your account using cash.”
If you're a rare rider you can still use Hop ticket machines to get a paper ticket for two-and-a-half hours or one day.
"What we’re getting rid of at the end of this year are un-validated foil stamp paper tickets. The paper tickets you get when you board a bus and put money in the fare box that are printed out, those are staying. And these at the MAX platforms at the WES platforms, our ticket machines are staying,”
Altstadt is encouraging people who ride frequently to purchase a physical card or download a virtual card.
Android users can already get the virtual Hop pass in their mobile wallet. You’ll be able to do the same in Apple wallet later this spring.
If your employer has a pass deal with TriMet, the agency says don't worry, they're working out transitioning the pass with your employer.
You've got until the end of the year to use up your un-validated paper tickets and passes, or trade them in for a free Hop card. You can do that at the TriMet ticket office in Pioneer Courthouse Square, by mail or at a ticket exchange event.
Unvalidated, foil-stamped 2.5 hour tickets and one-day passes can be exchanged for a free Hop card loaded with an equivalent value. Pre-validated paper passes, including one-month passes and seven, 14, and 30-day passes aren't eligible. TriMet also accepts unvalidated mobile tickets bought on their ticket app.
They have two upcoming ticket exchange events:
- Thursday, April 25, from 3:30 to 6 p.m. at the Tigard Public Library Community Room.
- Saturday, April 27, at Pioneer Courthouse Square from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.