Cubic: Recent MaaS Company Failures among Signs Pointing to Need for ‘MaaS 2.0’
There is little disputing the fact that mobility as a service has not yet lived up to its hype. And the industry’s largest automated fare collection system provider, Cubic Transportation Systems, said it believes that going forward, public transit services need to form the backbone of MaaS platforms, along with more demand-responsive transport.
Regional Transit Group Enables Cash Loading in Apps
Ohio-based NEORide consortium, a regional transit group that among other things, handles mobile-ticketing fare collection for 13 transit agencies in the U.S. states of Ohio, Kentucky and Michigan, is seeking to reduce cash from its members buses. It’s the latest agency or group to do so.
State of California Seeks to Change Way Transit Agencies Procure Fare Systems
As the California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans, sees it, the state’s more than 300 local transit agencies offer a fragmented and inefficient mix of fare collection systems–a fact it says discourages many potential riders among the state’s nearly 40 million residents from taking public transit.
Google Launches Ticketing in Maps after Delays; but Search Giant Says It has No Plans to Build MaaS App
Google has finally enabled users to initiate purchases of public transit tickets from its Maps app, following delays. Meanwhile, rival trip-planning app providers Moovit and Transit have been quietly moving forward with signing up most of the same small U.S. transit agencies to sell tickets in their apps.
More Transit Agencies Seek to Eliminate Cash Using Retail Cash Points, Fintechs
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, elimination of cash has taken on greater urgency for transit agencies. Fare-collection system suppliers say they are seeing strong demand for cashless options, including linking their mobile ticketing and contactless closed-loop card products to retail networks where customers can use cash.
A Vital New Publication for Mobility Providers
The publication will be a must-read for all mobility providers, as part of a robust and growing ecosystem.
Updated: Making the Move into Ticketing and Payments
Such major trip-planning app providers as Moovit, Transit and Google Maps see ticketing and payments as an important new service and for some, it’s one of the last steps toward creating true MaaS platforms.
Pros & Cons of Open Loop: Transit Agencies Face Choice
While the Covid-19 pandemic has slashed transit agency budgets and delayed rollouts, it has accelerated the trend for the agencies to enable their customers to pay fares with contactless EMV credit and debit cards and other electronic payments.
Washington, D.C.’s, SmarTrip Latest Closed-Loop Fare Card Added to Pays Wallet
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, or WMATA, as expected, has added its closed-loop fare card SmarTrip to Google Pay, following support by Apple Pay for the card last year. The launch Tuesday of SmarTrip for Google Pay is the latest move by an NFC wallet provider to sign up transit authorities globally for its payments service. Wallet providers, such as Google Pay and Apple Pay, are vying to add more fare cards to their payments services to attract more users and transactions.
Open-Loop Payments Trial at Small California Transit Agency Could Lead to More Rollouts in Giant State
California public bus agency Monterey-Salinas Transit last month officially launched a six-month “demonstration” project to pilot contactless open-loop payments. While the agency is very small, providing only around 3,500 rides per day last year, the launch holds much greater significance.