Transportation

Moscow Metro to extend biometric payment to surface, river, air rail transport

Image provided by Moscow Metro.

January 9, 2023

The Moscow Metro, the city's mostly underground railway, has deployed its biometric payment service to 330 more turnstiles this month, with plans to launch the service on surface and river transport, the Aeroexpress trains airport rail link service and the Moscow Central Diameters city train service, according to a press release.

To use the Face Pay, passengers register in the Moscow Metro mobile app, take a picture of their face and link their bankcard to their Troika transport card.

In 2022, passengers of the Moscow Metro and the Moscow Central Circle made about 32 million rides using the biometric payment service, according to a press release.

In addition, more than 220,000 users registered in the Face Pay system last year. The service is used approximately 120,000 times every day.

Moreover, Moscow plans to link social transport cards to biometrics, including those for students.