North America's Busiest Commuter Trains Now Support Apple Pay

Thursday October 6, 2016 7:11 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

New York governor Andrew Cuomo has announced the MTA eTix app for iPhone now supports Apple Pay, enabling commuters to conveniently and securely purchase tickets for New York City's Long Island Railroad and Metro-North Railroad trains.

As of this week, commuters can use Apple Pay to purchase one way, round trip, ten trip, weekly, and CityTickets tickets — as well as monthly passes — through the MTA eTix app, which can be used at all LIRR and Metro-North stations.

mta-lirr

Image Credit: Lionel via The New York Times

"The New York commute just got that much easier thanks to Apple Pay in the MTA eTix app," said Apple Pay vice president Jennifer Bailey. "Now you can skip the line entirely to buy train tickets right on your iPhone."

MTA's Long Island Railroad, operating between Manhattan and the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island, is the busiest commuter train in North America, with an average weekday ridership of over 300,000 passengers.

MTA's Metro-North Railroad, operating between Manhattan and upstate New York, plus parts of southwestern Connecticut, is the second busiest commuter train in North America, with an average weekday ridership of over 285,000 passengers.

MTA eTix, free on the App Store [Direct Link], eliminates the need to stand in line to purchase tickets from a vending machine. Instead, your iPhone serves as your electronic ticket, which you activate before boarding a train.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay

Tag: New York City

Popular Stories

UK Proposes New Ways to Help Apple Pay Rivals

Tuesday October 20, 2026 9:57 pm PDT by Hartley Charlton

The UK's competition regulator has proposed changes to make it easier and cheaper for companies to offer alternatives to Apple Pay on the iPhone (via Reuters). The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says Apple's fees and restrictions make it too difficult for rivals to launch contactless payment apps. Its proposals would give developers more ways to access the iPhone's NFC technology,...

• 72 comments

Apple Pay Ad Features Martial Arts Convenience Store Food Fight

Monday November 9, 2026 9:51 am PST by Juli Clover

Apple today shared a humorous new Apple Pay ad that promotes the benefit of the on-device payment option over cash and physical cards. The spot features a martial-arts-style food fight where a man runs into a convenience store to grab a weapon. He's followed by the other combatants, and everyone involved grabs a different food or beverage to fight with. The cashier makes everyone stop to...

• 21 comments

Apple Taking New Approach to Developing iOS 28 and macOS 28

Sunday November 8, 2026 7:42 am PST by Joe Rossignol

Apple has made a change to its development process for iOS 28, macOS 28, and corresponding software updates, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In his Power On newsletter today, he said Apple separates development of each year's new operating systems into three major stages. Typically, he said each stage consists of four weeks of coding followed by a four-week "convergence" period where...

• 142 comments

Top Rated Comments

djeeyore25

132 months ago

Buying tickets through the app is so much easier than through the machines. I can show up 5 minutes before my train leaves and not have to worry about long lines.

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

tmiw

132 months ago

The plan is by 2020 they'll accept contactless payments.

Somehow I feel that it'll take longer than that for one reason or other.

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Mike Oxard

132 months ago

I spent a weekend in London last month. Transport for London take contactless including Apple Pay on all busses, trains and river busses, you just tap and go, no messing about with tickets. At the end of the day they charge you the lowest rate for all the journeys you made.

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

truthertech

132 months ago

No, I'm not being a theif if the conductor refuses to come around or collect tickets on my trip. Maybe one of the reasons this happens is cause I'm a student and I'm only taking the train from Mineola to Cold Spring Harbor. That's not stealing, stealing would be one of those ass holes who runs around the train and hides when they actually are collecting tickets... To be clear, I am not the one at fault, it's the conductor, therefore I'm not responsible for not paying.

Ahh, now I understand. The real criminal is the conductor who is preventing you from following the honor system and paying your fare. Shame on him. It's like when a waitress forgets to leave you a check for the meal you ate; it's her fault not yours when you leave without paying. You are in the clear; now what was your question again on how we can help you continue to evade paying your fare?

Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

newyorksole

132 months ago

Anyone use this app? Looks genius now if only the LIRR was in time

Yeah I used it 2 weekends ago. It saves your credit card info when you actually buy a ticket. You can't save a card without purchasing first.

The ticket, once activated, is only valid for 2 hours. So don't "Activate" it until you actually are on board or until the conductor gets to you. For security and anti-fraud purposes there's a QR Code and other marquee-like moving images on the screen as a way to validate the ticket.

They don't scan your phone though, they just look at it and keep walking.

It just sucks because I can't put my WageWorks Commuter Card into Wallet because WageWorks doesn't support it yet.

Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)