Andrew Cuomo Promises Mobile Payments & More for MTA

Good news coming for New Yorkers, as Governor Andrew Cuomo offered some insight on plans to come for Staten Island and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

A host of technological advances was slated to follow Cuomo’s remarks, and mobile payments will be right in the middle of it all.

Not only will mobile payments be in play, as opposed to only MetroCard swipes, but the system will also soon boast greater Wi-Fi coverage as well as a set of countdown clocks at subway platforms.

There were even set to be included charging stations on trains and buses, giving users access to not only the means to get online, but also the power required to keep devices working to get online in the first place.

Cuomo called mass transportation “the future,” and noted that it was one of the biggest points involved in getting the region on a growth footing. The good news is that the MTA has no interest in blocking any of Cuomo’s proposals, but the bad news is that the MTA has been having trouble finding the necessary cash to get this stuff off the ground.

It just spent the better part of a year just trying to get capital together for its previous five-year plan, and with safety and expansion projects generally taking precedence over nice-to-haves like Wi-Fi and, yes, mobile payments, the cash for such projects is tough to come by.

Of course, it may not be as tough to add mobile payments as some might expect. After all, we see businesses adding mobile payment capability every day with things like Square, and a host of other point-of-sale (POS) systems have emerged since.

Since the MTA has been actively looking for a way to ditch the MetroCard system for the last few years—even the MTA considers MetroCard outdated—this could be a prime opportunity for some payment processor to step in and offer installations at no charge. After all, the idea of a company landing even a fraction of a percentage to process the MTA’s system would be a particularly sweet plum to land, business-wise.

While Wi-Fi and charging stations may be tall orders, mobile payments has long made a name for itself offering easy access to its technology. That could be helpful here as an eager buyer looks for the best deal.