São Paulo Metro retires its magnetic ticket after 52 years: Edmonson cards stop at the gates, swaps for QR codes run to January

A fixture of daily life in São Paulo for more than half a century has come to an end: the Edmonson magnetic ticket, in use since the Metro began commercial operations in 1974, stopped being accepted at the gates of Lines 1-Blue, 2-Green, 3-Red and 15-Silver on Saturday, October 31, after 52 years.

Unused tickets are not lost: swap for QR codes until January 31

The operator estimates about one million magnetic tickets are still in passengers' hands. Holders of unused tickets can exchange them for QR-code tickets between November 1 and January 31, 2027, at the ticket offices of Paraíso station (Lines 1 and 2) and Tatuapé station (Line 3), daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Only the Metro's own G-01 single Edmonson tickets qualify, and they must be in date, in good condition and show no sign of use or damage; up to ten tickets can be swapped on the spot.

Ageing readers — and paper tickets already off sale since 2021

The Metro says the magnetic readers have become hard to maintain and producing and distributing the paper tickets increasingly complex. In practice the Edmonson ticket had already disappeared from sale — all Metro-operated stations switched to selling QR-code tickets only in April 2021 — and this step ends gate acceptance for good. Passengers can instead use the Bilhete Único, the TOP card, QR-code single tickets in print or digital form, and contactless credit and debit cards or mobile wallets; self-service machines are also rolling out Pix instant payments.