Exclusive: U.S. Tariffs Will Cause Pain for Fare Vendors and Agencies, Though They May Not Spur More Manufacturing in U.S.
High tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump last week likely will hike costs for fare-system vendors, which are expected to pass on at least part of the increases to transit agencies, fare industry veterans told Mobility Payments.
Most industry observers say it’s too early to predict the scale of the impact, with many apparently holding out hope that Trump will change his mind and lower the tariffs, as stock markets reel and a number of countries seek to negotiate. Update: Trump abruptly paused most of the tariff hikes for 90 days on Wednesday, except for the levies on China. End update.
But while neither vendors nor agencies are expected to take huge hits from the tariffs, the pain could be significant.
U.S. Transit Agency Eliminates Cash on Board Buses; One of Few Cashless Agencies Nationwide
Faced with the choice of replacing aging fareboxes on its bus fleet or stopping cash acceptance altogether on board the vehicles, a small regional U.S. transit agency in Colorado chose the latter–even though it had collected 40% of its fares in the fareboxes only a month earlier.
It made Core Transit, which serves several small communities located two hours outside of Denver, one of the few transit agencies in the U.S. to have gone cashless on board its public transit vehicles.
Cubic to Launch Open-Payment Overlay Product, Introduces New Pricing Strategy, as It Seeks to Revamp Umo Offer
Cubic Transportation Systems plans to launch its “open-payment overlay” product within 90 days, seeking to give transit agencies the potential to launch open-loop payments with low upfront costs, like the Washington (D.C.) Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is doing with another vendor, Mobility Payments has learned.
Cubic has also introduced lump-sum pricing for new Umo ticketing contracts, deeming the old pricing strategy unsustainable.
Tip Sheet: Fare System Procurement in UAE Capital Canceled; New Tender Request May be Coming
Also: Visa’s Nick Mackie: Quit or Shown the Door?; Largest Agency on Multistate Ticketing Platform to Launch Fare Capping;
Major Agencies Again Meet with Payments Industry
Ridango Gets New Owner, New HQ and Says It’s Looking for New Acquisitions; Can It Shed Its Status as a Regional Player?
The chief of fare-system supplier Ridango says the vendor doesn’t plan “any shift in the company’s strategic direction” now that it has a new majority owner. But he added that the company will be “more active in mergers and acquisitions.”
Ridango founder and CEO Erki Lipre was responding to questions from Mobility Payments about UK-based private equity investor Bregal Milestone becoming the majority shareholder of Ridango, buying out
Queensland Rollout to Hit Major Milestone after Years of Delays; Politicians Seek to Score Points Over Fare-System Fumble
The last major transport operator serving the Australian city of Brisbane and the state’s most populous region, “South East Queensland,” is scheduled to launch open-loop payments Monday as part of a long delayed Smart Ticketing project being rolled out by Cubic Transportation Systems.
The original AU$371 million (US$234.1 million) account-based ticketing and open-loop payments project will increase in cost to nearly
Denmark Says It’s One-Third of the Way Toward Hitting Goal of Nearly Universal Adoption of Mobile-Ticketing App
When Danish transport officials launched their nationwide mobile-ticketing app last year, they repeated their ambitious–some might say fantastical-projection that use of the GPS-enabled app would one day account for 90% of public transport trips in the country.
Use of the app is still a long way from 90%, but project backers are making progress toward that goal. A spokesperson for Danish transport-ticketing agency Rejsekort & Rejseplan told Mobility Payments that the pay-as-you-go app topped 30% of total trips for the week ending Tuesday of this week.
UK Government Plans to Trial GPS Mobile Ticketing on Rail Despite Expansion of Open Loop
While mobile ticketing using GPS technology is advancing in such countries as Denmark, Switzerland and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere in Western Europe, it hasn’t yet been rolled out in the UK.
British transport authorities and operators have instead backed open-loop payments and pay-as-you-go ticketing for pretty much all transport modes, including–most recently–ticketing for intercity and commuter rail.
Transit App Introduces First-of-Its-Kind Feature Telling Users Where They Can Pay with Open Loop
The Transit trip-planning app has introduced a feature that tells users whether the transit agency they’re looking to ride accepts open-loop payments.
The first-of-its-kind feature kicked off with a list of more than 50 transit authorities, operators and groups globally in cities where the Transit app is present. That includes in North America, Transit’s homebase; as well as Europe and Australia and New Zealand. (See table with list provided to Mobility Payments)
To be sure, the list represents a significant undercount of the transit agencies that accept open loop globally, even among the 800-plus cities where the Transit app operates. But Transit says the list is a good start.
Cubic Wins Lawsuit Against LA Metro Seeking to Prevent Agency from Releasing ‘Confidential’ Pricing Information
A Los Angeles County superior court judge has ruled in favor of Cubic Transportation Systems in its lawsuit against the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Cubic has mainly sought to block the release of pricing data related to its $66.4 million sole-source contract upgrade approved by the transit last year.
LA Metro mounted no defense in the lawsuit. It did not file a response to Cubic’s Jan. 28 petition or oppose Cubic’s motions for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction. Judge James Chalfant ruled in favor of both motions, including the preliminary injunction on Feb. 27 and designated this as a final judgment. This wrapped up the entire case in a little less than a month.