Public transportation users in Scotland can now use a smart transit card issued by any of a group of 16 different bus, rail and subway operators to travel on all the services provided by any of the other members of the group... More
Bus passengers turning to contactless in record numbers, says First Group — Yahoo! Finance — “More bus passengers paid with contactless and mobile apps rather than cash on First Group’s local bus routes for the first time in its history, the company has revealed. According to bosses, 43% of payments were made by cash, with 45% made through non-cash methods, in the latest push towards a cashless society. The remainder came from ticket sales via third parties.”
Metrorex and BCR offer quick access to 9 metro stations through a new travel payment system — BCR (translation) — “Contactless card payment is available for the moment in the subway stations: Pipera, Aurel Vlaicu, Piața Victoriei 1 and 2, Piața Universitatea, Piața Unirii 1 and 2, Tineretului and Grozavești. The pilot programme will run for about 2-3 months and will be extended later to all subway stations.”
New Metrolink fares unveiled — Transport for Greater Manchester — “The new early bird offer will utilise Metrolink’s new contactless payment system, which has been used to make more than 1 million journeys following its introduction on 15 July… A survey from last year’s Early Bird pilot showed 53% of customers who had used an early bird ticket had shifted either their journey time (28%), their mode (9%) or both. 48% of customers who changed mode shifted from car and 24% from bus.”
Plans put forward for new transport ticketing — The Irish Examiner — “The National Transport Authority (NTA) has issued a market consultation notice to engage with potential service providers as part of its plans to advance the implementation of an Account Based Ticketing (ABT) system across the bus, rail, and light-rail network. It will allow passengers to pay for their journey through mobile phones, bank cards, or official ID card or passport, removing the need to carry a special card for commuting.”
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New York’s Omny contactless fare system is to undergo “a blitz phase of installations that will bring the popular new contactless fare payment system to all 472 stations as well as all MTA bus routes by the end of next year,” the city’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has announced... More
One in five contactless payments on London’s public transportation network are now made using a mobile phone or other non-card device, Transport for London (TfL) has revealed... More
Public transportation agency Translink is exploring the use of NFC technology as a replacement for paper timetables at bus stops in the Australian state of Queensland, iTNews reports... More
Greater Toronto area public transportation agency Metrolinx “is to start testing an open payment function on its Presto fare-card system as early as next year,” the Toronto Star reports... More
Delhi Metro to introduce biometric-based ticketing to offer concessions to students and senior citizens — Techradar — “Delhi Metro is looking to be the first metro line in India to link biometrics to smart cards, in a bid to offer concessions to riders… Once the new biometric-based ticketing system is installed, the smart card will be linked to an individual users’ credentials, and the card will no longer be transferable.”
STIB testing use of bank card as metro ticket at entrance gates — The Brussels Times — “STIB is testing a new system of contactless payment at metro station Parc/Park to allow travellers to directly scan their bank card, instead of a ticket, at the gates. If everything goes well, all other metro stops, as well as the electric buses on bus line 33, will be fitted out with the contactless system over the next few months.”
Public transportation operator First Group has begun a pilot of a new mobile ticketing service that uses host card emulation (HCE) to let customers with an Android NFC phone purchase a bus ticket, provision it to Google Pay and then use their smartphone to tap an on-board contactless reader when they board a bus... More
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Employees of 14 Vancouver-based businesses have been issued with a new type of transit card that lets them use a single payment method for travel on public transport operator TransLink, for bike sharing with Mobi by Shaw Go and car sharing with Modo and Evo — and then “view expenses for each mode at the end of the month in one convenient location, through a streamlined expense report”... More
Gautrain, the commuter rail service that connects the South African cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria, is to let passengers use their contactless bank cards to pay for their journeys by tapping on and off the service from 31 October... More
Uber users in Delhi can now use the app to plan journeys on the Delhi Metro and on local bus services — and will soon be able to purchase train tickets from within the Uber app as well. More
Australia’s Transport for NSW has introduced Opal Connect, a new service that aims to become “a one stop shop for all transport transactions and information, whether it is public transport, rideshare, taxis, parking and even tolling”... More
A new bus ticketing system that lets passengers use face recognition to make hands-free payments for their tickets has entered pilot testing in Kazakhstan’s capital city of Nur-Sultan... More
The Australian state of Queensland has begun the first of a series of pilots ahead of the rollout of its A$371m (US$249m) Smart Ticketing system, due to go live in 2022. A one-month pilot of new express ticketing gates is taking place at Brisbane’s Central Station More
Travellers in Russia’s capital can now use China UnionPay’s Quickpass contactless cards or an NFC payment app connected to a Quickpass card to pay their fares at 150 Moscow Metro stations, China’s Xinhua news agency reports... More
A new deal between Google and Cubic Transportation Systems is set to make it possible for public transport users in a number of major cities around the world to use Google Pay to add their transit card to their NFC mobile phone... More
