On January 15, a substantial change was announced in terms of public transport mobility in the Community of Madrid: the implementation – after many months of pilot testing – of the ‘Mi Tarjeta Transporte’ app, which allows users to validate their monthly travel passes on the Metro, urban and interurban buses, light rail and Cercanías trains directly from their mobile phones… except for those with an iPhone.
For the time being, the digitization of the monthly transport pass—a demand that is estimated to initially benefit more than three million passengers—is only available to users with an Android 9.0 or higher device.
People with mobile phones that use iOS technology will still have to wait to be able to use ‘Mi Tarjeta Transporte’. How long? No specific date has been specified: the Regional Transport Consortium of the Community of Madrid (CRTM) has indicated that it expects that “both annual company passes and iOS devices” will be incorporated throughout 2026 .
What does have a defined time frame is the digitization of two other types of passes: the children’s pass (for ages 4 to 6) and the blue pass (for Madrid residents who meet criteria related to age, disability, or limited income). Both will be available on mobile phones before the end of January.
Is it possible to digitize the transport card and still use the physical card?
Editorial credit: Regional Transport Consortium
One of the limitations of the system is that once the digitization process is complete, the physical card is blocked, so it is not possible to use it simultaneously in the app and in its traditional format. However, in order to obtain the mobile pass, it is essential to have a physical ticket first.
Manuel Ruiz de Velasco, CRTM technology project coordinator, points out that this is due to technical issues, but that work is underway to make the two formats compatible in the future through the Account-Based Ticketing (ABT) system.
However, it should be remembered that digitizing the card is not mandatory: in other words, those who prefer to continue using the physical card to travel around the region can do so without any problem.
What does the new app allow and what happens to the previous ones?
Editorial credit: Community of Madrid
Although this app will coexist with the two previous ones for the time being – ‘Tarjeta Transporte’ for reloading tickets and ‘Tarjeta Transporte Virtual’ for reloading and using non-personal tickets from your mobile phone – the Regional Minister of Transport, Jorge Rodrigo, has announced that the new app will eventually absorb and replace the two previous apps, centralizing all services in a single app.
In fact, the new app already has all of these features: from recharging physical and virtual tickets 24 hours a day to digitizing the card, checking the balance, and accessing a FAQ section and a complaints channel.
How to digitize your card and validate your trips from your mobile phone?
Editorial credit: Community of Madrid
First, after downloading and opening the app, to digitize the card, you must place the physical ticket close to the NFC reader on your mobile phone, follow the instructions on the screen, and transfer the content to Google Wallet. If you have any questions about how to do this, you can consult this tutorial, which shows you step by step how to do it.
Once this is done, as we said, the physical card is blocked and you can now validate your journeys with your mobile phone directly at the turnstiles. To do this, you need to open Google Wallet—where the card will be stored—select it and, with NFC activated, hold the back of your mobile phone close to the same sensors where you used to hold your physical card.
This system also maintains associated profiles and discounts, such as those for large families or people with disabilities.