As large transit authorities in the U.S. prepare deployments of open-loop fare collection, they say they still need progress from the payments industry to make those deployments successful.
Such major U.S. transit agencies as New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, MTA; Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, SEPTA, in Philadelphia; and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, WMATA, in Washington, D.C., say the technology for contactless payments and open-loop fare collection is available, but they need more contactless credit and debit cards, and NFC smartphones, in the market to support their deployments.
“Frankly, the pilots that (MTA) ran in 2006 and 2010 proved out that the technology can work in our environment,” said Michael DeVitto, vice president and program executive for fare payment programs at New York City Transit, part of the MTA, speaking at a recent transit agency executive roundtable on EMV, mobile and account-based fare collection put on by the Smart Card Alliance. “I think where we have some challenges is on the solution side, and so the delivery of the solutions for all of our needs is where some work needs to get done.”
Transit agencies say that getting more contactless cards into the market will be crucial to their open-loop rollouts, and this will rely on the migration of U.S. credit cards and point-of-sale terminals to EMV, expected to begin later this year.
The move to open-loop payment helps agencies reduce their expenses for running and maintaining their closed-loop fare-collection services. It requires upgrading their readers at fare gates and onboard buses. And it’s part of a larger move to account-based fare collection, which puts the intelligence of the fare-collection system in the back office, not on the card.
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Table: Open-Loop Fare Collection Gets Rolling with Some Big Transit Authorities
Among Topics Covered:
Move to account-based and open-loop fare collection by major U.S. transit agencies Waiting for bankers to move on contactless Details of account-based architecture and added services possible First open-loop deployments ‘not without some pain’Sources Quoted:
Michael DeVitto, VP, program executive, fare payment programs, NYC Transit
John McGee, Jr., chief officer, New Payments Technologies, SEPTA
Greg Garback, executive officer, department of finance and administration, WMATA
Among companies and organizations mentioned:
New York City Transit
Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Chicago Transit Authority
Transport for London
MasterCard Worldwide
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