Skip to main content

MasterCard and Cubic join forces on smart city payment solutions

MasterCard today is to partner with Cubic Transportation Systems, combining MasterCard’s everyday payments and loyalty management expertise with Cubic’s NextCity platform to develop solutions that: Enable transportation operators to offer flexible pricing based on system demand; Provide individual travellers with real-time guidance on their mobile devices on the smartest way to travel, offering fare incentives if the system becomes congested or overcrowded; Offer retailers at and around transportation hu
March 4, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
RSS1756 MasterCard today is to partner with 378 Cubic Transportation Systems, combining MasterCard’s everyday payments and loyalty management expertise with Cubic’s NextCity platform  to develop solutions that: Enable transportation operators to offer flexible pricing based on system demand;  Provide individual travellers with real-time guidance on their mobile devices on the smartest way to travel, offering fare incentives if the system becomes congested or overcrowded;  Offer retailers at and around transportation hubs ways to alert travellers to personalised offers and rewards on the go.

With more than half of the world’s population already living in cities, the partners feel many transportation systems have reached capacity. They say transportation authorities are looking for ways to better manage existing demand and create investments in new infrastructure. The penetration of smart devices is opening up new opportunities for service operators to connect with transportation users before, during and after a journey and in turn provide a more tailored and efficient experience.

The partnership will help accelerate the conversion of the currently US$200 billion cash payments into digital payments, saving operators cost for cash-handling and speeding up through-put. By introducing globally interoperable payment solutions for urban transportation systems, traveling between cities will become much easier, with no need to carry multiple tickets.

“MasterCard and Cubic, both lead members in the Smart Cities Council, share a vision to improve quality of life for everyday citizens in cities and help authorities to better manage population growth and urban development,” said Will Judge, head of Urban Mobility, MasterCard Enterprise Partnerships. “Combining our expertise and reach allows us to ultimately drive greater value and make consumers’ lives easier and more enjoyable as they travel around and between connected cities.”

Matt Cole, executive vice president, strategy and business development of Cubic Transportation Systems, said: “Partnering with MasterCard elevates the offerings within our NextWave mobile solution to a new level, and strengthens our NextCity story to demonstrate to urban centres everywhere how serious we are about addressing their transportation challenges.”

Related Content

  • November 18, 2016
    Cubic partners with Microsoft CityNext
    Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS), is to participate in Microsoft CityNext, a global initiative which aims to help cities do ‘new with less’, by combining the power of technology with innovative solutions to connect governments, businesses and citizens with services that increase efficiencies, reduce costs, foster a more sustainable environment and cultivate thriving communities. NextCity is Cubic’s coordinated framework for building a smarter tomorrow in the world’s urban centers where increasing popu
  • September 9, 2014
    Cubic and SenSen Networks agree on video analytics
    Cubic Transportation Systems has entered into a strategic alliance and licence agreement with Australia-based video analytics specialist SenSen Networks, enabling Cubic to distribute SenSen’s products and solutions that align with Cubic’s NextCity smart cities vision. The companies plan to deliver a range of solutions to the market, including automatic gate line monitoring in train stations and transport hubs using video analytics and intelligent video to increase commuter flow, detect health and safety
  • January 7, 2013
    Integration of travel payment and information closer to reality
    Integration of travel payment and information is bringing utopia in management of transportation as a single intermodal system is closer to reality. Larry Yermack writes. For decades, transportation planners and ITS visionaries all believed that transportation would not be fully optimised until it could be managed as a single intermodal system. Relationships between modal operators left this more in the dream category than reality. However, the steady march of advances in payment technology have brought us
  • October 24, 2012
    Cubic highlights its Nextcity urban travel payment and information platform
    Cubic, which has a revenue collection heritage going back nearly 40 years, is highlighting elements of the technology behind its Nextcity vision for the future here at the ITS World Congress. The goal for Nextcity is an integrated, multi-modal urban travel payment and information platform. Nextcity envisions a fully-integrated whole of transport, journey and payments management systems. It will enable a more efficient way of regulating, planning and informing all modes of travel within a given region, by