San Diego switches to account-based contactless transit ticketing

San Diego’s Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) is rolling out an account-based contactless ticketing system that will let passengers pay their public transit fares with a physical or digital transit card and have those fares capped to a maximum of the price of a daily or monthly pass.

MTS’s account-based Pronto fare payment system will replace its existing Compass transit card and will also be available on services run by the North County Transit District (NCTD) in the northern part of the San Diego region.

To promote the new system, MTS is letting passengers with a Pronto card or the Pronto mobile app ride for free on all services during the month of September.