Sydney Transit Official: Opal Card Not Going Away, Despite Growth of Contactless
Sydney-based Transport for New South Wales, Australia’s largest transit agency, has no plans to phase out or de-emphasize its closed-loop Opal card, despite strong adoption of contactless open-loop payments by customers, especially with mobile wallets, according to Kurt Brissett, executive director for connected journeys for the agency.
Panel: Closed-Loop Payments Expected to Remain an Option for Years to Come Despite Growth of Open Loop
While the trend today is for more transit agencies to introduce open-loop fare payments, closed-loop cards, either in physical form or dematerialized on smartphones and wearables, will be with us for many years to come–though perhaps in a reduced role. That’s according to a recent panel discussion at the Mobility Payments Asia Pacific 2021 conference.
Taiwan’s EasyCard Chief Sees Little Threat to Fare Payments Business from Fintechs
EasyCard Corp., Taiwan’s dominant transit e-purse, is not worried about fintechs taking away a significant share of its fare payments business and, in fact, is in talks to work with the country’s most popular e-payments fintech, Jkopay, the head of EasyCard said.
Moscow Metro Expands Large Test of ‘Face Pay’ to More Lines; Rollout Expected as Early as Next Month
Moscow Metro said today it has increased the number of lines supporting a large test of its “Face Pay” service to more than half of its total lines. The metro system, one of the largest in the world, remains on track to roll out the service across the entire metro this year.
While Interest is Growing in Going Cashless in U.S., Few Agencies have Accomplished the Feat So Far
The Greater Dayton RTA, which this month stopped accepting paper passes and tickets, will hit its Nov. 1 deadline to go completely cashless on board its vehicles, an agency representative confirmed to Mobility Payments.
Germany’s Largest Transit Operator Continues with Large Open-Loop Pilot on Buses; No Decision Yet on Rollout
Germany’s largest transit operator, BVG, said it’s pilot of contactless EMV payments extends to all of its nearly 1,500 buses, and the company has eliminated cash acceptance on board the vehicles, a spokesman confirmed to Mobility Payments. But officials in Berlin have not yet decided whether to make the contactless payments service permanent, he added.
Fairtiq App Sees Rising Usage as Covid-Era Riders Demand More ‘Touchless’ and PAYG Fare Options
Switzerland-based start-up Fairtiq said transactions for its fare-payments technology have more than double since February, as Covid-wary riders continue to seek what they consider to be more hygienic payments methods, as well as more pay-as-you-go options.
‘No Way We were Going to Ask for Half a Billion Dollars…’
Unlike other major transit agencies in the U.S., which have spent hundreds of millions of dollars replacing or upgrading their fare-collection systems, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority has taken a different approach.
UK Bus Operator Go-Ahead Reports Cash Usage has Plummeted Because of Covid, While Contactless Transactions have Surged
The Go-Ahead Group, one of the big five privately owned public bus operators in the UK, said today it has seen cash usage on board the nearly 3,000 buses it runs in England outside of London fall to 23% of transactions, down from 53% three years ago.
Transit Operator Arriva Launches MaaS App in Netherlands; Hints at Expansion to Other European Countries
Arriva, one of the largest private transit operators in Europe, has launched a mobility-as-a-service app in the Netherlands, using white-label software from Israel-based trip-planning app provider Moovit.