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
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
Netherlands Plans to Expand Open Loop to More Discount Products–as Growth in Adoption Continues to Slow
Public transport operators in the Netherlands plan to expand the discount products that customers receive when they tap their debit cards–with the goal of offering the same discounts as riders now get with the country’s much-used national closed-loop card.
This expansion has long been planned but is occurring as Dutch transport agencies see a continued slowing of growth of open-loop adoption nationwide. (See chart and table below.)
Tip Sheet: Montreal Authority Reissues RFP after Disappointing Results; Promises to be More Flexible This Time
Montreal-area transport authority, Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain, or ARTM, has reissued its call to tenders, as promised, for a new account-based ticketing system, after having cancelled the previous tender request in August because of disappointing results.
Also: Netherlands to Roll Out White-Label EMV Card for Closed Loop; Denmark Issues Another Tender Request for Validators; Miami Delays RFP to Complete Fare-System Overhaul
Australia: Cubic Notches Contract in Tasmania by ‘Leveraging’ Its Larger Queensland Project in ‘Platform-as-a-Service’ Play
Seeking “big city” features for its fare system, the small Australian state of Tasmania has decided to plug into the back office of a much larger fare system that is under development by Cubic Transportation Systems in the state of Queensland.
The unusual move means Tasmania will get a long-delayed upgrade to a fare system that will serve
Cubic Planning Open-Loop Payments Product as Part of New Business Unit
Cubic Transportation Systems’ new business unit, Mobility Essentials, which will oversee the vendor’s software-as-a-service ticketing platform, Umo, will also offer an open-loop payments product that has yet to launch, Mobility Payments has learned.
The vendor has put the new business unit within what it now calls its “Cubic Transportation Ventures”
Tip Sheet: Washington, D.C., Short Lists Vendors for Open-Loop Payments Project
The Washington (D.C.) Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, or WMATA, one of the largest subway operators in the U.S., has narrowed its procurement for an open-loop payments project to a short list containing as few as two vendors, Mobility Payments has learned.
The agency would not release the names of the short-listed vendors, but Mobility Payments has learned they include