MaaS Global Discloses Licensing Deal for Its Technology; Will It be Enough to Save Company?
MaaS Global founder and CEO Sampo Hietanen disclosed this week that the mobility-as-a-service start-up has a licensing deal with major Italian insurance company Unipol to introduce MaaS, though could offer few other details about the project.
Small U.S. Transit Agency has Big Ambition to Eliminate Cash
Despite significant costs for handling cash, very few transit agencies in the U.S. have eliminated cash from their fare-collection systems. But the head of one small bus agency in South Carolina, which recently launched open-loop payments, says he plans to try.
New York Transit Agency One of First to Link Concessionary Discounts to Open-Loop Cards and Wallets
In what is believed to be the first major transit agency to roll out concessionary discounts linked to open-loop payments, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority said more than a million seniors and disabled persons are now able to register to receive half-priced fares when they tap contactless credit or debit cards or NFC devices to pay for rides.
New York’s MTA Says OMNY Rollout Falls Further Behind Schedule; Cites Poor Vendor Quality Control, Other Issues
Officials with New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority this week said the rollout of its OMNY fare-collection system has fallen further behind schedule and isn’t expected to see “substantial completion” until the fourth quarter of 2025–nearly two and a half years later than Cubic Transportation Systems, the system integrator on the project, had originally promised.
Updated: New Zealand Announces Plans for Nationwide Open-Loop Payments Rollout
New Zealand’s Ministry of Transport today announced the country’s planned nationwide rollout of open-loop payments, a system costing an estimated NZ$1.3 billion (US$746.7 million) over 15 years. Officials signed a contract today with U.S.-based Cubic Transportation Systems to implement the project.
Can Transit Agencies Quit Closed Loop after Rolling Out Open-Loop Payments?
A panel of industry experts squared off for a first-of-its-kind debate about the pros and cons of open-loop payments, tackling a range of issues–from whether transit agencies can completely eliminate their closed-loop programs in favor of open loop, to costs agencies should be ready to incur when rolling out the technology.
Market Opportunity or Last Gasp? Pioneering MaaS Start-Up ‘Pivots’ to Stay in Business
Pioneering mobility-as-a-service start-up MaaS Global plans to drop its B2C business model and will instead try to license its Whim platform and expertise to non-transport companies that want to launch MaaS to their customers, Mobility Payments has learned.
Denmark Selects List of Suppliers to Advance to Next Round for National Mobile-Ticketing Project
Transit officials in Denmark have qualified a list of eight suppliers to compete for five vendor slots to provide technology or services for the country’s planned DKK 500 million (US$65.2 million) national mobile-ticketing system, Mobility Payments has learned.
MaaS Global Lays Off More Employees; Faces Uncertain Future
The CEO and founder of financially strapped Finnish start-up MaaS Global, creator of the pioneering mobility-as-a-service app Whim, said the company is “reorganizing. That includes laying off more employees, after having closed at least one country operation last month.
Italian Suppliers Lose Appeal on Venetian Open-Loop Payments Contract
Officials in Italy have reportedly denied an appeal by Italy-based fare-collection technology provider Pluservice and its partner, acquirer and processor Nexi, which had challenged a planned contract award to U.S.-based Conduent in Venice.