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
Special Report: Masabi and Cubic Seek to Sign Up Transit Agencies in North America with Group Contracts; In-Depth Look at NEORide Deal
The largest group fare contract of its kind in the U.S. will become at least a little bit bigger in 2025, when the NEORide council of governments says it will add five to six more transit agencies to the 15 agencies now live with its EZfare ticketing service across four states, Mobility Payments has learned.
NEORide’s ticketing vendor, UK-based Masabi, and its chief rival for software-as-a-service ticketing projects in North America, Cubic Transportation Systems and its Umo platform, are promoting the idea of regional fare projects.
To be sure, regional and nationwide fare-system procurements have been a growing trend for years globally, including those in Ireland, New Zealand and the Netherlands. These are mainly system integrator-led projects, however. In car-dominant North America, the early regional projects are using SaaS platforms and are targeting smaller transit agencies.
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
TIP SHEET: Vix and Kuba Ready to Merge? Also: Czech Vendor Wins in Sweden; Overhaul in Miami; Singapore ABT Update; Masabi Contract Expected
For several industry observers, the naming earlier this month of Kuba CEO Aaron Ross to also lead Vix Technology–replacing former Vix chief David Maitland–looks at lot like the start of an unannounced Vix-Kuba merger.
Vix and Kuba are already sister companies under private equity owner ICM Mobility.
Special Report: NEORide Group in U.S. to Rehire Masabi for Fare System; Did Other Vendors have a Chance?
UK-based Masabi has held onto an important ticketing contract in the financially squeezed software-as-a-service market–a project that at least some rivals contended that they had little chance of winning, Mobility Payments has learned.
A selection committee for Ohio-based NEORide, a council of governments body that coordinates mobile ticketing for more than 15 transit agencies across multiple U.S. states, chose Masabi for its procurement.
Some Small and Mid-Tier U.S. Transit Agencies Join for Group Procurement of Fare Systems: an Emerging Trend?
Some groups of small and medium-sized transit agencies in the U.S. are looking to procure new fare or ticketing systems, hoping to get a better deal from vendors than the agencies could on their own.
Budding MaaS App Hits Milestone for Public Transit Tickets but Share of Total Rides Still Low
U.S.-based trip-planning app Transit announced it has enabled 500,000 rides from its app for a group of 13 small to mid-tier transit agencies based in the state of Ohio, though mobile ticketing still makes up a small percentage of total rides provided by the agencies.
Trip-Planning Giant Moovit Begins to Enable Ticketing and Payments, as Rivals Make Similar Moves
Moovit, which bills itself as the world's largest “urban mobility app,” has begun to enable public transit ticketing and payments from its platform, as it seeks to deliver what it says is a true mobility-as-a-service experience for users.
Ohio-Based Transit Agency Group Planning to Enable Mobile Ticketing Through Uber App
(This premium article was originally published in May 2020. © Mobility Payments and Forthwrite Media.) A consortium of 13 small and mid-tier transit agencies in Ohio and Northern Kentucky plans to enable customers to buy public transit tickets directly in the Uber app as early as this summer, following two other U.S. transit agencies, in...