Use your gadgets: all BCL stations to offer a new payment method

The new station of the Big Circle Line (BCL) stations will offer passengers a variety of options to pay their fares. Muscovites and tourists are going to be free to choose their preferred method, be it modern or more traditional one.

“As instructed by the Moscow Mayor, the largest underground circle line in the world, the Big Circle Line, will offer passengers all the payment methods in use today. Face Pay, bank card payment at all turnstiles, and a QPS smartphone payment system as soon as it finishes testing. There will also be options to use Troika cards, social security cards or universal travel cards. Passengers can choose the most convenient option,” said Maxim Liksutov, Deputy Moscow Mayor for Transport.

The nine Big Circle Line stations still under construction will have 71 ticket machines and 32 info kiosks where passengers can top up their digital wallets, purchase travel cards or activate remote recharges of their Troika cards.

143 modern turnstiles will be installed in the lobby. Each of them will accept bank cards in addition to Troika cards. Two turnstiles in each lobby are going to have the Face Pay face recognition and payment system.

To be able to pay your fare with Face Pay system,you have to sign up to Moscow Metro mobile app. Add your photo to your profile and link your bank and Troika cards. At a Metro station, approach a turnstile marked with a black sticker and look into the camera.  The gate will open and the fare will be written off your bank card automatically.

Biometric technologies are growing more popular. Over 220,000 usersare already connected to the Face Pay service. Passengers have used it to enter Metro more than 43 million times since launch. Biometric payments are now possible at all Metro and Moscow Central Circle stations.

Travel fare payment is also possible via the QPS system. The public transport system is now using two pilot projects for that payment mode. It has been in use in all ticket offices at the already functioning BCL stations since June. The second project is focused on using the system to top up parking payment accounts in the Russian Parking app which reduces the banking fees up to 8 times. After the thorough functionality testing, passengers will be able to use their smartphones to pass the turnstiles. You don’t need a bank card for that;just a bank account would be enough. A QPS Metro fare payment will be credited from the client’s account to the vendor’s account instantly and directly. Any smartphone can be used for that. All a passenger will have to do is subscribe to the QPS payment system using the Moscow Metro app. The app will generate a unique QR code scannable by a reader device at any turnstile. The reader will open the way.

Moscow Metro Big Circle Line construction is the biggest underground construction project in the world. It will be 70 kilometers long. The total number of stations on the BCL will be 31. The line will become fully operational next year. Maryina Roshcha, Rizhskaya, Sokolniki, Tekstilshchiki, Pechatniki, Nagatinsky Zaton, Klenovy Boulevard, Kashirskaya and Varshavskaya stations will open for traffic. That will improve transport situations for 3.3 million residents of 34 districts. 1.18 million people live within a walking distance of those stations. 1 million trips are projected to take place over the BCL on weekdays. In the future, when all the points of transfer to other Metro lines become operational, that number will grow to 2.2 million.

The fully functional BCL will have points of transfer to 20 other Metro stations, 3 Moscow Central Circle stations, 8 MCD 1 and MCD 2 stations and 13 railway stations. The new circle line will take the strain off the existing Metro lines. The circle line, for instance, will lose about 25 per cent of its passenger load, radial lines – up to 22 per cent.