Moscow is preparing for yet another innovation in public transport — fares will be payable literally with your "face." The biometric payment system will begin to appear gradually on buses and electric buses. The details were disclosed by Moscow Deputy Mayor for Transport and Industry Maksim Liksutov.
According to him, around 800,000 people use biometrics every day in the metro, on the MCC and MCD. At the same time, cameras have already been installed in all electric buses and in about 25% of buses.
However, in surface transport the system will work differently.
Since there are no turnstiles on buses, and forcing people to approach a validator with a camera would be a strange solution, we have developed a separate logic for using biometrics in surface transport
To use the service, a passenger needs to submit their biometrics in advance in the Moscow Metro app and link a bank card.
After that, everything happens automatically: when boarding the bus, the system identifies the user via Bluetooth or with the help of cameras in the cabin. If the equipment has "seen" the person, and they have confirmed in the app that they are on a specific bus, the fare is charged.
At the same time, the authorities emphasize that if a passenger decides to pay for the trip in another way, for example with a Troika card, there will be no double charge.
According to Liksutov, the "math" of the mechanism is still somewhat complex, and the system's operation under load still needs to be evaluated. A gradual rollout of the system is planned throughout 2026 on various routes across the capital.
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