Carry the Madrid metro and bus card on your mobile It is already a reality. The Regional Transport Consortium of the Community of Madrid has finally launched an application with which passengers can purchase a virtual card to dispense with the physical one and, therefore, pass their smartphone through the turnstile to use public transport. Until now, remember, some buses could only be accessed using NFC payment.
The application, for the moment, is available in testing phase, although anyone can access it – that is, no registration is necessary. It will be like this for at least three months, as confirmed by the Madrid Regional Transport Consortium.
The app, however, does not allow you to link the physical metro and bus card. That is, to use the transportation card on your mobile, it is necessary to generate a new one. Luckily, it’s free during the trial period, so you only have to pay for the Metrobus 10 tripswhich at the moment is the only title that can be purchased.
Transportation card on your mobile, these are the requirements
Now, at the moment, the possibility of having the metro card on your mobile is only available on Android, and it is necessary that your smartphone meets a series of requirements. They are the following.
The Madrid Regional Transport Consortium details that, first of all, It is necessary that the smartphone has NFC. Additionally, the device must be updated to Android 7.0 or later versions.
On the other hand, you must install the application Google Wallet (if you don’t have it), since it is essential to have the metro and bus card on your mobile. That is, the new application, called Virtual Transportation Card, only serves to generate a new virtual transportation ticket and recharge it once it runs out, but the card itself will appear in Google Wallet.
Of course, you also need the Virtual Transportation Card app. You can download it from here or searching for it in the Google Play Store.
How to install the metro and bus card on your mobile
If you meet the requirements and you already have the new application installed, to be able to use your cell phone as a metro and bus card, you just have to follow the following steps.
- Open the Virtual Transport Card application and click on ‘Acquire Card and Ticket’.
- Next, click on the ‘Multi-trip’ option and choose the title you want to acquire.
- Then confirm the title and click ‘Pay’. You will need to enter a card that will be saved for future title purchases.
- Lastly, it is necessary Save the virtual card that the app generates in Google Wallet. Afterwards, you just have to access the card and pass the mobile phone through the turnstile, as if it were physics.
Remember that this is a pilot test, so it is likely to fail at times. Therefore, it is advisable to also carry the metro and bus card in physical format.