Public transit riders in the Seattle area will soon be able to access their ORCA Cards for digital payments via Google Wallet on Android devices.
- In a blog post this week, Atri Chandramouli, a product manager for Google Wallet, mentioned how riders in some cities need to use a specific card to pay for transit, and ORCA is one such case.
- “Working with transit agencies and other partners, Google Wallet makes it easy for riders in some cities to purchase and store your transit pass directly on your phone,” the blog post read about the feature, which has already been rolled out in Madrid, Spain. Google called it a convenient way for people to get a new transit card instantly, easily reload the card, and view real-time transit card balance and transaction history, all from a mobile phone.
- After posting about the development on X/Twitter on Friday, the official ORCA Card feed heard from users who would love to see iOS and Apple Wallet accessibility, or regular credit cards as a transit payment option. ORCA responded by saying it is “committed to bringing the convenience of mobile payments to all our customers, but we have nothing else to share at this time.”