Those are more for single rides by people who rarely or never use the transit system. I've had the same Carte Opus for years and just bring it with me and refill whenever I visit Montreal. And the disposable paper cards are being phased out. I'm not sure when the rollout will be, but Montreal is currently working on upgrading the system to allow people to just tap-to-pay at the turnstiles using their phones or compatible credit and debit cards.

Which is not something that you could do with a QR system. I don't know that anything is inherently wrong with QR codes, but they do seem to be a choice that's more appropriate for countries like China where the existing electronic payment infrastructure uses QR codes. In North America, by contrast, things have generally settled on NFC, and I think that that reason alone probably makes NFC the better option for North American transit systems.

> Montreal is currently working on upgrading the system to allow people to just tap-to-pay at the turnstiles using their phones or compatible credit and debit cards. > Which is not something that you could do with a QR system

I've got several apps that display QR codes on the screen for an external reader. One of them is for my health insurance id card (a simple 10 digit number), another shows my COVID vaccination status (this one is complicated, and I'm not sure why they used a QR code for it. It must include batch identification and other information given the size)

By tap-to-pay, I mean you need no special apps, you need no special accounts, any of that. You can pay with any physical credit or debit card that supports tap-to-pay, or you can use any credit or debit card you have loaded into your phone.

With a QR code like that, people still need to install an app, set up an account, etc. It's just a lot more friction. In cities where I can tap-to-pay, getting set up to ride a bus or train for the first time takes literally zero time; I'm already set up. If I need anything special - apps, accounts, system-specific QR codes, etc - then the setup time instantly goes up to a minimum of 10 minutes. It's a relatively large barrier to entry for infrequent riders, and ultimately serves to discourage use of public transit.

Really? Setting up contactless payment is quicker than having a QR code image? I use QR codes on the UK train system and I don't have any special apps. It seems to integrate with Google wallet too, which surprised me.

On rail systems with gates, these disposable "ultralite" RFID tickets are usually put through the old slot that used to take magentic tickets.

Exit gates usually capture the ticket on exit when it has been used up (ie single journeys, or after the number of trips encoded on the ticket).

These can (and are) recycled numerous times.

The point of the disposables is that they use the same technology (NFC/RFID) as the more robust long term multi-use NFC cards.

So if you're replacing an existing magnetic system, you can reuse the magnetic transports (belts/motors etc) for single use, including capture-at-exit and recycling for single journeys, while also adopting the NFC for multiple use.