Quick view: Apple Pay Express now works at every MRT and LRT fare gate in Singapore. Hold your iPhone or Apple Watch to the reader with the screen asleep and the gate opens. No Face ID, no Touch ID, no passcode. Buses are the exception: only those already fitted with the newer card readers accept it, and LTA says the whole fleet will be done by end-2027.

If you have been unlocking your iPhone every time you reach an MRT gantry, you can stop.

Apple Pay Express (Apple calls the setting Express Transit or Express Travel) has been switched on across Singapore's rail network. The Land Transport Authority confirmed to *The Straits Times* on 4 September 2026 that it has been live at all MRT and LRT stations since mid-August. There was no press release and no launch event, which is why most commuters still do not know it is there.

What actually changes at the gate

With Express turned on, your phone pays without asking you to prove who you are. You do not wake the screen, you do not open the Wallet app, and you do not authenticate. You hold the device near the reader and walk through, exactly as you would with an EZ-Link card.

Everything downstream stays the same. It is still SimplyGo, still charged to whichever Visa, Mastercard or American Express card you have set, and still the same fare. The only thing that has been removed is the authentication step.

This also closes a gap that had been open for years. SimplyGo's own FAQ notes that Google Pay and Samsung Pay users have long been able to tap in without authenticating. Apple was the holdout. It no longer is.

Buses are not there yet

This is the part worth reading before you leave your card at home.

Express works only on buses fitted with the newer, advanced card readers. LTA did not say how many buses currently have them. What it did give is the finish line: the readers are being rolled out progressively across the public bus fleet, which stood at 6,067 buses at the end of 2025, and every bus will have one by the end of 2027.

Until then, LTA's advice is unchanged for buses: unlock your device or authenticate as you tap in. In practice you will not know in advance which kind of reader is on the bus you board, so expect the occasional bus where the tap simply does not register until you wake the phone.

SimplyGo's own website still says it does not work

Here is the trap. As at 4 September 2026, the official SimplyGo FAQ still carries this line under the question on express fare payment for mobile wallets: *"Apple Express is currently not available for express fare payment in transit."*

That page has not caught up with the rollout. If you go looking for confirmation on the operator's own site, you will be told the feature does not exist. It does. The authority that runs the network has confirmed it publicly, and it works at the gates today.

How to switch it on

Adding a card to Apple Wallet does not automatically make it your transit card in Singapore. You pick one.

On iPhone, either route works:

  • Open the Wallet app, tap the card you want, tap the three-dot button at the top right, choose Card Details, then Express Travel Settings, and select the card.
  • Or go to Settings > Wallet & Apple Pay > Express Transit Card and pick it there.

On Apple Watch: open the Watch app on your iPhone, go to the My Watch tab, scroll to Wallet & Apple Pay, tap Express Travel Card, and select your card. The watch is set separately from the phone, so doing one does not do the other.

You can only nominate one card at a time. Whichever you choose is the one that gets charged every time you pass a gate.

It works even when your battery is dead

One genuinely useful side effect: Apple's Express cards run on power reserve. Apple's own documentation states that Express Mode cards keep working for up to five hours after the iPhone no longer has enough charge to power on, on iPhone XS and later.

So a phone that has died on the way home can still get you through the gantry. That is not a marketing claim, it is how the NFC chip is designed to behave.

The fine print that can cost you money

The convenience is real, but the SimplyGo rules underneath it have not changed, and a few of them bite harder now that the phone taps by itself.

Concession fares do not work on a phone. SimplyGo is explicit: cards in a mobile wallet are charged regular adult fares. Students, seniors, NSFs and other concession holders must keep using their physical SimplyGo Concession card. Setting up Express Transit and tapping through with your phone means quietly paying the adult fare on every trip.

Tap in and out with the same device and the same card. SimplyGo requires it. Tapping in with your phone and out with a physical card is the classic way to get charged a maximum fare.

Card clash gets easier to trigger. Because Express taps without you doing anything, waving a wallet that also holds an EZ-Link card near the reader can produce the "Multiple Cards" message and a gate that will not open. Keep the phone clear of your other contactless cards.

Foreign-issued cards carry a daily fee. SimplyGo levies a Foreign Bank Card Admin Fee of S$0.60 per day of use on foreign-issued Mastercard and Visa cards. Locally issued cards pay standard fares.

Not every card is accepted. Only American Express, Mastercard, NETS and Visa cards carrying the EMVCo contactless indicator work in transit. NETS contactless ATM cards are not supported in any mobile wallet for fares, and Maestro, Cirrus and NETSPay are not accepted at all.

Amex has fewer wallet options. American Express contactless cards work with Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, but not with Fitbit Pay or Garmin Pay.

The trade-off worth thinking about

Express Mode exists precisely because it skips authentication. That is the whole point, and it is also the cost: anyone holding your phone can tap it at a fare gate without unlocking it. The exposure is capped at transit fares rather than your full card balance, so most commuters will decide the two seconds saved at every gantry are worth it. It is still a choice you are making, not a default you should switch on without noticing.

Which card should you set?

Whichever one treats public transport spending best. Transit charges show up as SimplyGo on your statement, and cards differ on whether that spend earns cashback or miles, and whether it counts toward a minimum spend. Check your card's terms rather than assuming, because transport is one of the categories issuers most often exclude.

Note also that earlier community reports in late August found Express working only at some gantries, and mainly at the newest turquoise gates. LTA's confirmation on 4 September supersedes that: it is now all MRT and LRT stations.

Related

*Sources: LTA, as reported by The Straits Times on 4 September 2026; SimplyGo official FAQ on contactless bank cards and mobile payments, checked 4 September 2026; Apple Support documentation on Express Mode and power reserve. Cover graphic: Miss Lobang.*