IOS26 NFC/Express Transit randomly fails for London TFL Tube

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Level 1

4 points

IOS26 NFC/Express Transit randomly fails for London TFL Tube

Arrived in London four days ago, and the iPhone tap for the London TFL Tube randomly fails. Sometimes you have to double-click for card authentication, but that does not always work. You have to walk away and then try other exit or entry readers. This is an issue with all 4 iPhone users in our family. We all have the latest iOS 26.0.1. We have an iPhone 15, 16, and two 17s. They all randomly fail at the turnstiles. The credit card selected for Express Transit Card is the Apple Card on all 4 iPhones.

Apple Pay functions as expected at payment terminals with no issue.

This appears to be an issue with iOS 26 because a couple of months ago there were no issues in London with iOS 18.

iPhone 16 Pro, iOS 26

Posted on Oct 13, 2025 9:28 AM

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Answer 1

Jeff Donald

Level 8

44,568 points

Oct 13, 2025 3:34 PM in response to CL from Maui

No, as explained in the material when you joined Apple Support Community, Apple Support does not participate here. Everyone posting and commenting are fellow Apple users. With that said I worked for about 20 years in the financial industry and am a former Apple Store manager.

It would be unusual for a bug to randomly decide to prevent a transaction and then randomly decide to allow a transactions, especially across three different model devices. This sounds more like a transit company with random issues with their turnstiles.

Have you contacted Goldman Sachs? Do you see the attempted transactions in your Apple Card in your Wallet? Is your Apple Card failing at other merchant locations in London?

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