Skip to main content

French city pilots ticketless public transport payment by smartphone

French local transport authority Valence Romans Déplacements (VRD) in south-eastern France, is piloting Xerox Seamless, an easy-to-use technology for public transport mobile payments that enables passengers to make payments by smartphone. Between now and the end of June 150 customers will use the Xerox Seamless app on their smartphones to travel on the city’s buses, operated by Citéa for VRD. Xerox has installed near field communication (NFC) tags on VRD’s local and intercity bus lines. Users downloa
October 5, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
French local transport authority Valence Romans Déplacements (VRD) in south-eastern France, is piloting 4186 Xerox Seamless, an easy-to-use technology for public transport mobile payments that enables passengers to make payments by smartphone.

Between now and the end of June 150 customers will use the Xerox Seamless app on their smartphones to travel on the city’s buses, operated by Citéa for VRD.

Xerox has installed near field communication (NFC) tags on VRD’s local and intercity bus lines. Users download the app to their NFC-enabled smartphone and register with Xerox Seamless to activate an account. Passengers simply tap the smartphone on any Xerox Seamless NFC tag to create and store an encrypted transaction and relay it to the smartphone. Constant network connection is not required - the transaction is transmitted when network connectivity is available.

"People have become used to using smartphones for a variety of activities,” said Aline Leclerc, a customer taking part in the pilot. “This new Xerox technology makes it easy for me to travel on buses across Valence and Romans.”

“Xerox Seamless has the potential to transform the travel experience in Valence by providing users with an alternative payment system that is both simple and secure,” said Marylène Peyrard, president of VRD. “This technology, which is compatible with all mobile phone operators, was installed quickly and easily on the network.”

Related Content

  • November 26, 2015
    Cubic Launches Ventra mobile app for Chicago public transport systems
    Cubic Transportation Systems, in partnership with customers Chicago Transit Authority, suburban bus operator Pace and commuter rail Metra, has launched the Ventra Mobile App for public transport passengers in Chicago. The one-stop mobile app gives transit passengers who travel on CTA ‘L’ trains or buses, Pace or Metra commuter trains the ability to plan, manage and pay for their journeys for each of the region’s agencies. The companies say this is an industry first for fully integrated regional transit s
  • December 16, 2014
    Chicago integrates regional transit fares
    Travellers in Chicago will soon be able to use a single app to plan their journey, pay and receive real-time alerts across all public transit services in the Chicago region. The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), suburban bus operator Pace and commuter rail system Metra have awarded Cubic Transportation Systems a US$5.4 million contract to supply an integrated mobile application and system supporting a wide variety of mobile ticketing, mobile top up, contactless mobile payment using Near Field Communication (
  • December 7, 2012
    Helsinki commuters use RFID to buy tickets, post messages
    By tapping a Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled phone against the tags installed at 211 tram stops, passengers nine transit lines operated by Helsinki Region Transport (HRT) can now use their NFC-enabled mobile phones to not only pay for tickets, but also to upload and view comments on Helsinki Region Transport's online message wall. Helsinki Region Transport already enables commuters to purchase tickets using their mobile phones. Travellers can simply input an SMS code and send it as a text message in
  • June 20, 2013
    Smart payment ticket for LA commuters
    Xerox’s universal payment system, TAP, now makes it faster and simpler for passengers in Southern California to transfer between passenger trains, buses, subway and light rail. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) and Metrolink recently teamed up with Xerox to develop TAP-enabled Metrolink tickets that are compatible with the Metro TAP smart fare payment system.