US transit networks gear up for chip cards and mobile payments

Washington Metro has joined Chicago and New York in making plans to accept contactless bank payment cards at the turnstile, as a mass-market switch to EMV-based chip cards appears increasingly likely. Washington Metro has awarded Accenture a US$184 million contract to replace the existing fare collection systems for Metrorail, Metro-operated parking facilities, Metrobus and MetroAccess services. The new system will enable passengers to continue to use existing SmarTrip cards, while expanding fare paym
January 15, 2014 Read time: 1 min
Washington Metro has joined Chicago and New York in making plans to accept contactless bank payment cards at the turnstile, as a mass-market switch to EMV-based chip cards appears increasingly likely.

Washington Metro has awarded 1968 Accenture a US$184 million contract to replace the existing fare collection systems for Metrorail, Metro-operated parking facilities, Metrobus and MetroAccess services.

The new system will enable passengers to continue to use existing SmarTrip cards, while expanding fare payment to chip-enabled credit cards, federal government ID cards, and mobile phones using near field communications (NFC).

1000 Chicago Transit Authority has also decided to convert to the Ventra open-fare payment system from 378 Cubic Transportation Systems, while the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority is planning to move to EMV chip cards and mobile payments.

Related Content

  • March 19, 2013
    Cubic to deliver hardware system for MTA Bus Time
    Cubic Transportation Systems has been awarded a contract worth almost US$27 million from the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority to build and integrate the bus hardware system for MTA Bus Time, the authority's customer information system for bus location and arrival times that will be accessible to passengers using an internet browser-based map, a mobile phone-based application and a text message-based service. As part of the bus hardware system, Cubic will deliver its new mobile validator that w
    Read More
  • September 26, 2014
    China Mobile and Gemalto deploy NFC transport in Beijing
    Digital security specialist Gemalto has been selected by China Mobile to provide its UpTeq NFC multi-tenant SIMs to protect consumer credentials used for mobile contactless applications, starting with mass transit services in Beijing. Gemalto pre-loads the SIMs with the Beijing transport application and enables over 22 million daily commuters in the city to travel on buses and the metro by simply tapping their smartphones on the contactless ticket reader. Beijing commuters are demanding convenient
    Read More
  • December 4, 2012
    Public transport operators implement passenger safety systems
    Operators of public transport systems are arming themselves with sophisticated systems of technology to ward off terrorism threats to passenger safety. David Crawford reports. City transportation authorities worldwide are looking more keenly than ever for mass transit solutions to overcome traffic congestion and manage commuter flows. As they do so, concerns over passenger security are driving development of new technologies for terrorist incident detection, response and emergency passenger evacuation. The
    Read More
  • November 13, 2020
    Santa Cruz loses contact with Masabi
    Mobile ticketing application is expected to improve passenger safety
    Read More

Highlighted Content