Editing Moscow Metro (section)

=== History of the ticketing system ===
Soviet era turnstiles simply accepted N kopeck coins.

In the early years of Russian Federation (and with the start of a [[hyperinflation]]) plastic tokens were used. Disposable [[magnetic stripe card]]s were introduced in 1993 on a trial basis, and used as unlimited monthly tickets between 1996 and 1998. The sale of tokens ended on 1 January 1999, and they stopped being accepted in February 1999; from that time, magnetic cards were used as tickets with a fixed number of rides.

On 1 September 1998, the Moscow Metro became the first metro system in Europe to fully implement "contactless" [[smart cards]], known as Transport Cards. Transport Cards were the card to have unlimited amount of trips for 30, 90 or 365 days, its active lifetime was projected as 3½ years. Defective cards were to be exchanged at no extra cost.

In August 2004, the [[Government of Moscow|city government]] launched the Moscow Resident Social Card program. Social Cards are free smart cards issued for the elderly and other groups of citizens officially registered as residents of Moscow or the [[Moscow region]]; they offer discounts in shops and pharmacies, and double as credit cards issued by the [[Bank of Moscow]]. Social Cards can be used for unlimited free access to the city's public-transport system, including the Moscow Metro; while they do not feature the time delay, they include a photograph and are non-transferable.

Since 2006, [[Banking in Russia|several banks]] have issued [[credit card]]s which double as Ultralight cards and are accepted at turnstiles. The fare is passed to the bank and the payment is withdrawn from the owner's bank account at the end of the calendar month, using a discount rate based on the number of trips that month (for up to 70 trips, the cost of each trip is prorated from current Ultralight rates; each additional trip costs 24.14 rubles).<ref name="rates_2010">{{cite web |title=Table of tariffs |url=http://www.mosmetro.ru/tariffs/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170414080630/http://www.mosmetro.ru/tariffs/ |archive-date=14 April 2017 |access-date=30 July 2018 |publisher=City of Moscow |language=ru}}</ref> Partner banks include the [[Bank of Moscow]], [[CitiBank]], [[Rosbank]], [[Alfa-Bank]] and [[Avangard Bank]].<ref name=creditcards>{{cite web |title=Безналичная система оплаты проезда |url=http://old.mosmetro.ru/pages/page_0.php?id_page=779 |url-status=dead |publisher=Moscow metro |access-date=20 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727014525/http://old.mosmetro.ru/pages/page_0.php?id_page=779 |archive-date=27 July 2011 |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

In January 2007, Moscow Metro began replacing limited magnetic cards with [[Smart card#Contactless smart cards|contactless]] disposable tickets based on [[NXP Semiconductors|NXP's]] [[MIFARE|MIFARE Ultralight]] technology. Ultralight tickets are available for a fixed number of trips in 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 60-trip denominations (valid for 5 or 90 days from the day of purchase) and as a monthly ticket, only valid for a selected calendar month and limited to 70 trips. The sale of magnetic cards ended on 16 January 2008 and magnetic cards ceased to be accepted in late 2008, making the Moscow metro the world's first major public-transport system to run exclusively on a contactless automatic fare-collection system.<ref name=mifareinmoscow>{{cite web |url=http://www.nxp.com/news/content/file_1518.html |title=Moscow Metro: the World's First Major Transport System to operate fully contactless with NXP's MIFARE Technology |publisher=[[NXP Semiconductors]] |access-date=26 January 2009}}</ref>