Face Pay in Moscow

08.09.2021

Hello everyone, this is Maksim Liksutov!

More than 15 thousand passengers use Face Pay on four Metro lines. Sounds fantastic, but about 6 years ago, there was one single turnstile in the whole Metro to pay for a ride with a bankcard. The fare system in all Moscow transport has made a huge leap in technology and passenger convenience. The number of payments at the gates with a card or a smartphone has increased 213 times since 2017 when we introduced the service at all stations.

Now it is Face Pay. Soon we will integrate all the remaining lines, and, as the Mayor said, in October we will make it available on the entire Metro network.

Testing is in full swing. I myself registered, uploaded a photo through the app and, to test it, passed with Face Pay several dozen times - there was not a single error. The cameras work, the recognition technology itself is reliable. We also conducted a special load test - this is when the testers pass with Face Pay for half an hour non-stop without a break. We see that the system is extremely convenient. Metro employees also now pass through the gates with this technology only. We even made them the protagonists of the Face Pay advertising campaign. You will soon see it on the entire network.

We are constantly in touch with passengers to make the service even better. Many asked us to make Face Pay fares cheaper than the bankcard fare for the time of the test. The Mayor instructed us to work out this issue; in the near future, we will give a discount for testers of this payment method.

One of the most common questions: is it possible to pass through the gates with someone else's photo. The answer is no. This is what Liveness technology works for, distinguishing an ordinary photo from the face of a living person.

We are working on the possibility to integrate other types of tickets to Face Pay next year, and to cover MCC, MCD, trams and buses. We will also keep all the other fare payment modes. You can join the testing here.