Google Pay

Google Pay gains support for Cubic transit cards, including San Francisco’s Clipper cards

Kyle Bradshaw | Oct 14 2019 - 12:14 pm PT

Despite the name, Google Pay isn’t just about payments, but it also aims to let your Android phone replace other cards in your wallet like rewards cards and transit cards. The latest cards to join Google Pay are transit cards from Cubic, well-known for their Clipper cards in San Francisco.

This morning, Cubic Transportation Systems announced that they’ve signed an agreement with Google for their transit cards to be supported by Google Pay, specifically calling out Clipper cards as being among the first to be supported.

With Google being themselves based in the San Francisco Bay area — and still expanding there — it’s almost surprising that it took so long for Google Pay to support Clipper cards, if only for their own employees’ sakes.

Beyond the Clipper card, Cubic is also responsible for New York’s recent MetroCard replacement, OMNY, and similar systems in other cities, which means Google Pay may likely also soon support these systems. The executive director of the OMNY program, Al Putre, had this to share.

This collaboration between Google and Cubic will help us build on the success we’ve seen so far with contactless payments here in New York. We want to do everything we can to make sure our riders have the best options available, and the MTA welcomes this kind of innovative ticketing solution.

No timeline has been shared on when we should expect the ability to add OMNY and Clipper cards to our Google Pay wallets.

Considering public transportation can be a critical part of your daily commute, would you trust Google Pay as the primary way you manage transit cards? Let us know in the comments.