The Taipei Metro Corporation earlier announced the progress of the Taipei MRT gate renewal, stating that the installation and renewal process has now exceeded 10%, and is expected to be completed as scheduled in October this year. It will also support multiple payment methods. It also claims to adjust the height of the QR Code and credit card sensing area based on the average height of men and women aged 18 to 65 in Taiwan, so that most users can pass smoothly when entering and exiting the station using multiple payment methods.
Taipei Metro's new equipment supporting multiple payment methods will be put into operation in October this year
The Taipei Metro Corporation also explained that it is currently carrying out a "gate electronic main unit module replacement project" in accordance with regulations from the Taipei City Government's Mass Rapid Transit Engineering Bureau. The project will focus on replacing outdated equipment and introducing support for multiple payment methods. The replacement project will install a total of 2361 multi-payment plug-in boxes across the system. These will extend the existing box structure to include additional QR and credit card sensing areas.
As for the height of the QR Code and credit card sensing areas, it was designed with reference to the statistical data released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare from 2017 to 2020. The average height of men aged 18 to 65 in Taiwan is 170 cm, and the average height of women is 160 cm, when entering and exiting the station using different payment methods. The QR Code scanning block is placed on the top, and the credit card sensing area is configured at a 60-degree angle downward. This avoids the interference of iPhones and other models with fast card sensing functions using QR Codes to enter and exit the station, where the credit card stored in the mobile phone will also pop up due to sensing.
The new device also supports ECP function, and iPhone will be able to directly sense entering and exiting the station through "Quick Card"
In addition, the Taipei Metro credit card payment ticket service tender states that new equipment suppliers must cooperate to complete the development, modification, testing and verification of the Enhanced Contactless Polling (ECP) function. The Taipei Metro also confirmed that after various tests in the future, iPhone users will be able to bind their credit cards in the Wallet app and set them as "Quick Cards" to directly scan in and out of the station. This is similar to binding a Japanese Suica card to an iPhone or Apple Watch, and then directly approaching the gate for scanning, without having to unlock the device in advance like Apple Pay does through NFC sensing.
As for Android phones, except for Samsung phones that have cooperated with the EasyCard company and can directly use their phones to simulate EasyCards to enter and exit stations, other brands of phones such as the Pixel series or Sony phones still need to use NFC sensing or the EasyPay App's Bibi Ride function to board the bus because Google services do not yet support the ECP function. However, these methods are not as intuitive and convenient as "Quick Cards".
It's still not possible to link EasyCard to iPhone Wallet, so it may only be possible to enter and exit the station via NFC.
However, after the EasyCard company and Apple broke down their cooperation, it seems that it is no longer possible to bind the EasyCard to the Apple Wallet App like a credit card.NFC usage regulations have been relaxedIn this case, EasyCard can still allow iPhone users to use NFC to sense the ride-hailing function of the iOS version of the EasyPay App, but the subsequent progress of EasyCard in this regard cannot be confirmed at present.
