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CTS prepares Paths for contactless travel 

Riders on public transport between New York and New Jersey will use a single account
By Ben Spencer January 24, 2022 Read time: 1 min
The system will be fully deployed by early 2024 (© Potatushkina | Dreamstime.com)

Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) is to continue updating Port Authority Trans-Hudson’s (Path’s) fare payment system, enabling contactless payments between New York and New Jersey. 

As part of the contract, CTS will provide Path with Cubic’s fare payment back office to centralise automated fare collection on conventional public transport modes. 

Cubic says the back-office technology also offers passengers a single account to manage all their travel needs, making Path into an account-based system similar to those in Chicago and the Australian city of Brisbane.

The first phase of the contract consisted of efforts for the full implementation of the contactless payment system, such as gate upgrade kits and upgrades to the field network and infrastructure. Once complete, Path’s payment system will function in a similar way to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)’s Omny system in New York and the Oyster system in London.

These features are expected to enable Path to more easily integrate the system with mobility services such as bike-share, scooter hire and tolling in the future.

The system will be fully deployed by early 2024 and will replace Path’s legacy SmartLink payment system. 

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