We sort of have two forces pushing in opposite directions: * Many transport cards were NFC or RFID or otherwise "you don't have to take the card out of your wa

We sort of have two forces pushing in opposite directions: * Many transport cards were NFC or RFID or otherwise "you don't have to take the card out of your wallet" years before general-purpose cards were. Now, many transit systems just promote "tap-on and off with your Visa and don't bother loading money into our closed-loop network." (Interestingly, I will note that Toronto's system at least is cheaper to ride if you do use the closed-loop card) * Conversely, merchants-- especially large merchants-- have desperate desire to get away from the general purpose card networks due to high fees and sometimes clunky chargeback rules. Notice the handful of "Walmart Pay"/"Kroger Pay" apps that they'll support rather than enabling Apple or Google Pay at the till, or even things like Target and some petrol stations offering propriatery cards that connect to debit for settlement. Transport cards could be appealing for the merchant audience-- they're likely cheaper to process and represent funds already confirmed by the transport operator. But they're not federated, so it would turn into a nightmare of a thousand individual integrations and a UX like the early days of (pre-Visa/MC branded) debit where you'd have to check if the merchant supported the specific network your card was on.