Cubic Expected to Win Major Fare-System Contract in Philadelphia
Cubic Transportation Systems is expected to win the major fare-system project from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, or SEPTA, an up to $211 million deal to implement and operate the agency’s planned Key 2.0 system.
Update: SEPTA abruptly pulled a proposed resolution from the board agenda for the Dec. 19 meeting this week to approve Cubic, with a spokesman telling Mobility Payments only that "discussions about the proposal will continue between board members and SEPTA staff." He did offer more details for the change. An earlier agenda (see page 17), as of last Thursday, Dec. 12, had the proposed resolution scheduled to go foward for a vote Dec. 19 with a recommendation to hire Cubic. There's no evidence yet that the SEPTA staff has withdrawn that recommendation.
Small Transit Agency Buying Through Cal-ITP Sees Open-Loop Transaction Value Climb
Open-loop transaction value doubled for a small California bus agency last month, although credit and debit card payments still represented a small share of total fare revenue, Mobility Payments has learned.
The gains for Humboldt Transit Authority, in far Northern California, present perhaps a typical snapshot of one of the small municipal transit agencies that is buying its equipment through the state-backed Cal-ITP open-loop procurement program. The program is serving a few larger agencies, as well, and recorded its biggest quarter to date in terms of orders of nearly $1 million during the third quarter, as Mobility Payments reported.
In-Depth: Agencies See Opportunities–as well as Challenges–in Rolling Out Account-Based Ticketing
Account-based ticketing offers big potential for transit agencies, but also poses challenges, a panel of representatives from agencies in Europe, the Middle East and North America that have rolled out the technology or are in the process of doing so said during a recent panel discussion.
Those challenges can include the need to maintain both the new and old ticketing systems for a “considerable” length of time; the lack of off-the-shelf software
Littlepay Beat Out Cubic for Unexpected Contract Win with Major U.S. Agency; Now the Small Australia-Based Vendor Must Deliver
Transit agencies in the U.S. and beyond will be watching to see whether a recent gambit by major agency Washington (D.C.) Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to hire small Australia-based payments service provider Littlepay over its large incumbent supplier, Cubic Transportation Systems, pays off.
WMATA made the unexpected move, as Mobility Payments reported earlier this month, to award an important contract to Littlepay to carry out the agency’s “Open-Payment Overlay” project. The overlay–one of the few projects of its kind globally–seeks to add open-loop acceptance on top of the agency’s existing network of closed-loop terminals quickly and cheaply.
It means that WMATA will have to continue to maintain a completely separate legacy closed-loop system, likely for years to come, using older card-based ticketing technology.
Tip Sheet: Fare Officials from Major Transit Agencies, Including New York and London, Believed to be Discussing How to Deal with Payments Industry
Fare payments representatives with major transit agencies in Europe, North America and Australia have been quietly meeting to discuss merchant fees and fraud around open-loop payments, Mobility Payments has learned.
Also: Australian Government Launches Contactless Trial–Believed to be Token Gesture; Cal-ITP Program has Record Quarter, Thanks to Orders from Sacramento Agency.
Calls Unheeded? Transport for London Says Certain Merchant Fees Rising Despite Complaints
Nearly nine months after open-loop payments pioneer Transport for London sent an unmistakable signal to banks and payments schemes that it was unhappy about rising transaction fees, not much appears to have changed.
Back in early March, Andrew Anderson, the agency’s head of customer payments, complained about increasing transaction fees and higher fraud losses, which he said threatened to kill the “golden goose” of contactless fare payments for the agency.
Auckland Launches Open-Loop Service as Planned, as It Awaits Implementation of National Rollout in New Zealand
New Zealand’s Auckland Transport will launch open-loop payments Sunday, bringing credit and debit card acceptance to buses, trains and ferries serving the country’s largest city–at least two years before Auckland would have gotten the technology under an ongoing implementation of a national ticketing solution.
The new open-loop service in Auckland will accept four payments brands and three different mobile wallets, but will only apply to single
Report: Conduent and State Transport Officials in Melbourne at ‘Loggerheads’ Over Contract, but State Denies Problems
Transport officials in the Australian state of Victoria continue to deny there are any problems with the implementation of a new ticketing system by U.S.-based supplier Conduent Transportation, despite new local reports of discord between the vendor and government over the project budget and timelines.
The Victoria Department of Transport and Planning in Melbourne, in a statement pushed back
Washington, D.C., Transit Agency Chooses Littlepay over Incumbent Cubic for Open-Loop Upgrade
The Washington (D.C.) Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, or WMATA, has selected small payments service provider Littlepay to roll out its “open-payment overlay project, Mobility Payments has learned.
It’s a surprising choice for the low-cost but much-watched contract, given that the winning vendor was short-listed with the much-larger incumbent, Cubic Transportation Systems. WMATA is looking for a
Tip Sheet: Will Conduent Put Its Transit Fare-Collection Business on Sale Again?
Conduent, a major fare-system vendor, may again be shopping for a buyer for its fare-collection business, sources told Mobility Payments, though the company has not announced it is planning to sell the unit, and a spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The U.S.-based vendor famously did an about-face in 2022, with the company putting its transportation segment out for a possible IPO or sale, only to take the segment off the market after four months.