• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, January 6, 2015

The Muni buses may still be late, but at least San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency is keeping pace with the times. This week the city’s transit operator announced it is testing a new mobile fare payment app  for iOS and Android that will allow passengers to buy and redeem tickets directly from their smartphones.

Created in partnership with GlobeSherpa, the mobile fare app will allow users to buy tickets from their smartphones using a bankcard or PayPal account stored on the device, then redeem them with SFMTA Transit Fare Inspectors, who will be equipped with a new enforcement application to verify mobile fares on hand-held mobile devices.

According to Muni, the pilot program is part of a broader push to test mobile payment options for public transportation throughout the Bay Area, using a new version of the Clipper card, a region-wide fare service accepted by multiple transit operators.

The SFMTA announcement comes not long after New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it plans to introduce mobile apps that allow passengers to use their smartphones to pay their fares, as well as enabling payment with key fobs or credit cards equipped with RFID or NFC technology.

In October the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra, and Pace announced they were joining forces to test a new mobile ticketing app for Ventra, the city's fare card system, which will allow users to present their smartphones, preloaded with virtual tickets, to conductors who then scan and collect the fares.