The Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority (GDRTA) in the US state of Ohio has launched a reusable physical smartcard to enable passengers without a smartphone to make capped contactless fare payments using its Tapp Pay account-based ticketing service.

Tapp Pay uses fare-capping technology to ensure passengers never pay more than the price of a daily or monthly pass for multiple journeys and has previously only been available for smartphone users via the Transit Mobility-as-a-Service app.

Users can purchase the smartcard from ticket vending machines and add funds to their stored-value account using cash or their credit and debit cards. Funds can also be preloaded at GDRTA payment kiosks and at retailers supporting the VanillaDirect cash-in payment platform.

“Traditional transit fare systems have created a situation where customers who are least able to afford the upfront costs of a monthly pass end up paying more, but also end up travelling less by the end of the month,” GDRTA’s Brandon Policicchio says.

“This development is the last piece of the puzzle of our work with [technology provider] Masabi, bringing fare equity to our customers with this technology, and offering them a convenient and contactless method of riding our services.”

Dayton RTA added account-based ticketing to its mobile transit app in February.

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