TriMet to end mobile app sales

PORTLAND — And finally, the bell tolls for thee, TriMet mobile app ticket holders.

TriMet announced Monday that Aug. 6 would be the final day riders can buy tickets using the mobile ticketing app. Users of the app will have until Dec. 31 to use those tickets.

The end to the era of the app should come as no surprise to anyone. TriMet has been saying it will ditch the app in 2019 since last year.

The agency is instead focusing on getting mobile users to the Hop Fastpass card, which debuted in 2017.

Hop allows users to pay for just the rides they take, and converts two rides in one day to a daily pass. Each pass is added up, and when the rider pays the amount of a monthly pass, they don’t pay again.

The card works on C-Tran, TriMet and the Portland Streetcar and is now available as an app and in a physical card.

In Monday’s release, TriMet call Hop “a better way to pay” than the old app, which was launched in 2013.

The agency is suggesting users convert the current value of their mobile tickets to a Hop card by visiting the TriMet Ticket Office in Pioneer Courthouse Square or by attending a “ticket exchange event” in the Portland area this summer.

At those events, mobile users and paper ticket holders can convert the value of their existing tickets onto free Hop cards.