Skip to main content

Philadelphia’s transport system moves to contactless payment

US-based Xerox has been awarded a contract worth US$122 million to provide Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) with a contactless fare collection system. The system, which is to be installed on regional trains as well as buses, trolleys and subways, uses credit or debit cards to collect fares. Philadelphia is home to the USA's sixth largest urban transit network which clocks up 1.1 million journeys per day. Users of the network will soon be saying farewell to cash, metal tokens and
October 8, 2012 Read time: 1 min
US-based 4186 Xerox has been awarded a contract worth US$122 million to provide 4288 Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) with a contactless fare collection system.  The system, which is to be installed on regional trains as well as buses, trolleys and subways, uses credit or debit cards to collect fares.

Philadelphia is home to the USA's sixth largest urban transit network which clocks up 1.1 million journeys per day.  Users of the network will soon be saying farewell to cash, metal tokens and magnetic cards and will be using their contactless credit or debit cards as travel passes and for fare payment.

"Philadelphia was very interested in the full-scale experiment we began back in 2010 on the New York metro and New Jersey buses", recalls Marc Gordon, Vice President, Xerox public transit services and project manager in Philadelphia.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Cubic payment application software achieves PCI-DSS certification
    June 11, 2013
    The latest version of Cubic Transportation’s Cubic Payment Application (CPA 3.0) has been successfully validated according to PA-DSS v2.0 by the PCI Security Standards Council, and is listed as acceptable for new deployments on the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS) website. CPA 3.0 is designed to provide optimum performance for securely processing legacy closed-loop payments, such as agency issued transit smartcards, as well as emerging forms of payment including bank-issued contactles
  • UK rail system to get interoperable smartcards
    January 8, 2015
    ESP Group has been appointed by the UK’s Rail Settlement Plan to provide personalisation, encoding and fulfilment services for a major smartcard programme that will simplify travel for millions of passengers on the UK’s busiest train network. The company’s smartcard operation Systex will produce and issue a range of powerful contactless smart tokens for short and long term use that will include high capacity microprocessor cards, lower capacity smart tickets, wristbands, key fobs and accessories. The
  • Lecip Holdings Corporation acquires Arcontia International
    August 23, 2013
    Arcontia International, Swedish producer of contactless smart card products and solutions for automatic fare collection (AFC) has been acquired by Lecip Holdings Corporation, a Japan-based manufacturer of products and solutions for the bus, train and automotive industry. The acquisition will enable Lecip to expand its range of public transport products and solutions and further strengthen its strategy to become a leading supplier in integrated AFC systems and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS).
  • Missouri’s smart solution for rural road monitoring
    July 7, 2017
    David Crawford sees how Missouri is using commercially available information to rapidly improve monitoring and driver information on rural highways. Missouri is a predominantly rural state with the second largest number of farms in the country and agriculture the main occupation in 97 of its 114 counties. US statistics starkly reveal how road accidents in rural areas tend to be more serious than in urban regions and of the 32,000 US motorists killed each year, 54% die on roads in rural areas even though onl