Use Apple Pay Express Transit Feature? You Must Read This

There is a pretty nasty problem for some people using Apple Pay’s Express Transit feature.  Details below, but first an overview of the feature.

Apple Pay Express Transit

Within Apple Pay you have the ability to set a feature called Express Transit and select a card to always use with it. This card does not have to be the same as the default card for purchases. When set you can touch your phone or watch on the reader without having to authenticate with TouchID or FaceID.  This makes passing through gates a lot easier and faster.  It only works on transit systems which are signed up with Apple to use it, which includes TfL. This means the security implications should be fairly low. Finally, if your phone has run out of battery Apple keep a tiny amount so that you can still touch transit readers, although you should probably try to recharge as soon as possible.

So What Is The Problem?

Revenue protection staff on TfL and train companies operating PAYG with contactless will sometimes ask you to touch your card or device on their reader (known as a RID or Revenue Inspection Device). This records the time that you were inspected along with your card number (tokenised) and is sent back to the central system. As long as your card is not blocked that is the end of it as far as the inspector is concerned. The back office collates all touches and if you were in the system at the time of the inspection then you’ll see an entry on your journey history with no charge. If you were not in the system at the time then the entry will be accompanied by a charge which will not count towards any cap.

The problem is that the RID does NOT announce itself as a transit reader so you have to select which card to check.  If your transit card is different to your purchase card then by default the wrong card details will be read and sent to the central system. Next up is a real life case study to demonstrate what happens and how the issue can deteriorate over time.

Case Study

This is the experience of a commuter travelling between Victoria and Shortlands on Southeastern trains. They have two cards in their Apple wallet; card A is the default card for purchases and card B is used for all express transit transactions.

• Nov 2025 – A revenue inspection takes place, no problem suggested.
• Jan 2026 – Another revenue inspection takes place, again seemingly ok.
• What hadn’t been noticed was that both those inspections generated a £16.30 charge on card A while the proper journey charge was made to card B.  Because card A only had two revenue inspection charges without any other travel TfL blocked the card.
• 14th April 2026 – This time the revenue inspection announced that the card was blocked by TfL. The commuter was puzzled as the phone had opened the gates at Victoria.  The inspector didn’t have an answer for that and issued a penalty fare. The commuter contacted TfL who assured them that there was no block on card B. Again the journey was correcly charged to card B. An appeal to the penalty fare was lodged including the journey history but this has been rejected.
• 28th April 2026 – The same thing happens again. The penalty fare has been appealed again, outcome unknown at present.
• 30th April 2026 – Another revenue check is made and this time all is ok. We’re not quite sure why this would be.
• May 2026 – The commuter has given up using contactless and has purchased an Oyster card.

Can The Situation Get Worse?

Yes it can. Remember that Express Transit mode keeps a tiny amount of the battery free to allow this to work for a few hours after all other features of the phone are disabled.  That includes the ability to make normal purchases. So you’ve touched in at the gate and been let through, safe in the knowledge that you’ll be ok to touch out half an hour later. But then a revenue inspector comes along and they can’t read your card. You are going to get a penalty fare at the least, but if it’s happened before then they may well report you for prosecution. There is nothing you can do at that point.

What Should I Do?

Firstly, don’t worry if you only have one card on the phone or Express Transit uses the same card as your default for purchases.  If that isn’t the case then when you are asked to touch a RID you MUST make sure that the correct card is selected in your Apple Wallet BEFORE touching the RID. And finally, if you use Express Transit at all, you must ensure that your phone doesn’t run out of charge.

I’ve asked TfL about this situation and they say:

The RID is designed to process the card presented to it during inspection and currently, this does not factor in Apple express mode. Customers must therefore present the correct card.

If they have been penalised – if they contact TfL’s customer services, they will look into it and where applicable refund and unblock the card.