U.S. Intercity Train Service Faces Challenges with Open Loop, but Says ‘Contactless Payment Works on Rail’
Capitol Corridor, believed to be the first intercity passenger rail service to pilot open-loop payments in the U.S., plans to expand the trial soon and is installing contactless readers on all of its trains for an eventual rollout.
But the Northern California rail service, which is the largest transit agency supporting the state-backed open-loop procurement program Cal-ITP, has encountered some challenges that other transit agencies introducing open-loop payments don’t have to deal with.
Cubic Faces Tight Deadline to Implement Open-Loop Payments in Los Angeles
With approval of a $66.4 million contract upgrade by the LA Metro board, Cubic Transportation Systems now faces a tight deadline to implement open-loop payments for Metro and 26 smaller transit agencies serving Los Angeles County.
The contract approval late last week was expected, but unlike recent decisions by transit boards in Minneapolis, Boston and New York–which largely rubber-stamped
Updated: Netherlands Stands by Plan to Retire Much-Used Closed-Loop Card by End of 2025
Dutch transport officials are still on track to fully retire the country’s nationwide closed-loop card program, OV-chipkaart, by the end of next year, the program director for the year-old open-loop OVpay system told Mobility Payments.
OVpay, the first major nationwide open-loop system globally, will likely only account for 25% to 30% of
Update: Tip Sheet: Philadelphia Agency Could Reveal New Fare-System Vendor in July
The proposed contract for the new Key 2.0 fare system in Philadelphia goes to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority board in July for approval, according to a SEPTA official, who is not revealing whether the agency has chosen a vendor yet.
As Mobility Payments has reported in recent months, a shortlist of two vendors, Cubic Transportation Systems and
MTA Official Asks Payments Networks for Lower Fees to Accept Open Loop with New Transit Interchange Rate
New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority fare official Amy Linden today called on U.S. payments networks to set a uniform transit interchange rate that reduces high fixed fees most agencies must pay to accept open-loop payments.
“(It’s) something we've always asked for, getting a transit rate,” she said, speaking at the Transport Ticketing North America conference in Chicago. “Government, higher education, lodging industry all
Analysis: Boston Project Finally to Get Rolling; What had Gone Wrong?
When Phil Eng arrived in Boston to take over as general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in April 2023, he assumed control of a transit system beset with crumbling infrastructure, labor shortages, budget shortfalls and safety problems.
He also inherited a fare-system project that had seen years of delays and a budget that had ballooned to nearly a billion dollars.
Tip Sheet: Sydney Transport Authority to Issue Much-Anticipated RFP for Opal Next Generation by July
Transport for New South Wales this week issued an advance notice of its plans to release its long-awaited request for proposal for its Opal Next Generation fare project. The Sydney authority, a major backer of open-loop payments, said Tuesday that it plans to issue the RFP within two months.
The authority confirmed its tender request will nclude two major parts, an “ABT Solution” and a vehicle-tracking “Bus Solution, which Mobility Payments reported last month was likely.
As Use of Digital Wallets Grows with Open Loop, Transport for London and other Agencies being Hit by ‘Retokenization’ Fraud
Digital wallets are fast becoming the preferred method of payments for transit riders using open loop, with some major agencies recording well over half of their open-loop transactions coming from mobile devices, as Mobility Payments reported.
But for at least the past couple of years, agencies have been vexed by a certain type of fraud based on
California Open-Loop Procurement Program Notches Second Out-of-State Project, but Overall Take-Up Remains Low
After more than two years, the California Integrated Travel Project, or Cal-ITP, is still seeing low orders from transit agencies and minimal open-loop transactions, but the program did notch its second project outside of California, Mobility Payments has learned.
Among recent records obtained by Mobility Payments show a validator order for
In-Depth: New York’s MTA Takes Away Part of OMNY Project from Cubic; Seeks Completion of Rollout by Close of 2025
New York transit authority MTA today took a key part of its high-profile OMNY fare system away from its main technology vendor, Cubic Transportation Systems, as it seeks to complete OMNY over the next 18 months.
The board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority today gave final approval to a proposal to modify