People dislike government monitoring them exactly because it's a step toward totalitarianism.

Nothing prevents public transit to allow people pay with their credit cards or even with driver's licenses. I'm pretty sure that if government works on such payment system -- it would be much more expensive and buggy than best private alternatives.

Besides, government has other things to focus on, such as pulling military out from Iraq and paying out huge government debt. It's not government business to mess with payment system and/or National ID.