Starting Monday, Feb. 23, catching a bus or light-rail ride around the Puget Sound will be as simple as tapping a credit card, debit card or phone at an ORCA reader. The update is part of ORCA’s new Tap to Pay rollout, aimed squarely at making life easier for occasional riders, tourists and visitors as the region gears up for a packed 2026 events calendar. Regular ORCA cards and reduced-fare programs remain in place for riders who depend on discounts or passes.
According to ORCA, the system will accept contactless Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express cards, along with Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, at ORCA card readers beginning Feb. 23. Riders who tap a contactless card will still get the standard two-hour transfer benefit, but they will be charged the full adult fare. Discounted fares and employer or school passes must still be paid with ORCA products. Officials describe Tap to Pay as an added convenience, not a replacement for existing payment methods.
How the new Tap to Pay system works
The technical upgrade allows ORCA readers to process contactless bank cards and mobile wallets in real time using an open-payments model, an implementation explained in recent coverage of the rollout. GeekWire notes that the system relies on industry standards so fare readers function much like regular point-of-sale devices, and that officials ran limited tests on a single route before flipping the switch for the wider launch. During those trials, riders were asked to tap only one card or device at a time to avoid accidental charges from multiple payment methods stored together.
Who it is for, and who it is not…