Apple Pay Express Mode Now Available at All Toronto Subway Stations

Apple Pay's Express Mode has rolled out to all TTC subway stations in Toronto, allowing riders to simply hold their iPhone or Apple Watch near the reader at the turnstile to pay for their fare. With Express Mode, payment can be completed without waking or unlocking the device, or authenticating with Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode. Express Mode even works for up to five hours after an iPhone has run out of battery power.

As noted by Toronto resident Andrew Escobar, it is still not possible to add a PRESTO card to the Apple Wallet app, so Express Mode is limited to credit and debit cards added to the Wallet app for now. Public documents related to recent TTC meetings suggest that the PRESTO card will gain Apple Wallet support later this year.

To set up a credit or debit card for use with Apple Pay, open the Wallet app on the iPhone, tap the plus sign in the top-right corner, and follow the on-screen instructions. To set a payment card as the default option for Express Mode, open the Settings app on the iPhone, tap Wallet & Apple Pay, tap Express Transit Card, and select a card.

Some payment readers elsewhere in the TTC system already worked with Apple Pay's Express Mode. Apple periodically updates a list of locations where Apple Pay's Express Mode is available for transit on its iOS feature availability page.