Porto Launches Open-Loop Pilot on Metro Line and Bus Route, Targeting Tourists; Plans Call for Rollout by 2022
Porto aims to become one of the next cities in Europe to roll out contactless open-loop payments, launching a pilot on a Porto Metro line and a route of STCP, which runs the bus and tram service for Portugal’s second largest city.
Smaller Slovakian Bus Agencies Support Virtual Cards in Google Pay
Two mid-tier bus operators in Slovakia are among the latest to enable their customers to tap virtual closed-loop transit cards in Google Pay to pay fares, using a provisioning service from NXP Semiconductors.
Moovit Moves Forward to Enable Ticketing and Payments in App with More Transit Agencies
Large trip-planning app provider Moovit has enabled customers of more than 50 mostly small transit agencies in the U.S. to buy mobile tickets it its app, with more agencies to come, the company confirmed to Mobility Payments.
Calypso Backers Seek to Expand Mobile Ticketing on Android Phones
The recent move by CTS, the transit agency serving the French city of Strasbourg, to make its NFC mobile-ticketing service available to users of nearly all Android phones, could signal greater use of Google’s host-card emulation technology by supporters of Calypso, one of the world’s major technologies for closed-loop fare cards.
SaaS Ticketing Vendor Sees Pent Up Market Demand for Mobile Ticketing
It comes as little surprise that demand for mobile ticketing by transit agencies has soared at the same time ridership plummeted during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cubic Makes Major Platform Play, Responding to New Competitors
U.S.-based Cubic Transportation Systems–known for building big bespoke fare-collection systems for such major cities as London, New York, Chicago and Sydney–has begun rolling out its Umo platform, targeting small to mid-tier transit agencies, in addition to its traditional customers.
Queensland ABT Project to Give Customers More Ways to Pay
A new account-based ticketing system under development for Brisbane and the Australian state of Queensland represents one of the latest rollouts of account-based ticketing, a technology expected to eventually replace most card-centric fare collection systems globally.
More Major Transit Agencies Launch Virtual Closed-Loop Cards
While the move to open-loop fare collection by transit agencies gets a lot of attention, some major agencies have been shunning the idea of accepting bank cards for fares while expanding ways their customers can pay with well-established closed-loop fare cards.
Post-Covid: Using MaaS Platforms to Ease Fears
While use of public transit is returning, it could take years before ridership returns to pre-Covid levels, if it ever does. Many customers have changed their lifestyles and won’t come back. But others who might return remain anxious about boarding buses or trains in a post-pandemic world.
Taiwan’s Dominant Transit Purse Struggles with New E-Payments Landscape
EasyCard Corp. remains the dominant contactless stored-value card in Taiwan, boasting market shares of nearly three-quarters of transit fare payments and retail transactions nationally amid competition from three other contactless closed-loop cards that vie for transit and low-value retail transactions across the island nation.