Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
By Kevin Woodward
@DTPaymentNews
Consumers using near-field communication (NFC)-enabled payment cards and smart phones enabled with mobile wallets soon will be able to use them to pay for transit rides operated by the Miami-Dade County’s Department of Transportation and Public Works, Cubic Corp. recently announced.
The contract is valued at $33 million and tasks the Cubic Transportation System unit of Cubic with modernizing the agency’s fare system and providing 10 years of back-office cloud-computing support. The enhancements will complement the existing EASY Card system, which San Diego-based Cubic installed in 2009. EASY Card also has a digital-ticket variant. Currently, the agency has approximately 300,000 average daily boardings on its bus, rail, and paratransit services.
The open nature of the service, which also will put all of the back-office network onto the cloud, means contactless cards bearing a branded mark or a mobile wallet, such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Android Pay, or Masterpass, can be used to pay for a fare. Wearables, like the Apple Watch and Samsung Gear, also are accepted, Cubic says.
“Mobile ticketing is the payment mode of the future. It eliminates a lot of hurdles and it’s a huge modernization for our transit system,” Alice N. Bravo, director of DTPW, said in an email to Digital Transactions News. “People can save time and money by using public transportation, which helps improve mobility in Miami-Dade County. Mobile ticketing certainly makes it easier, faster, and more convenient to pay for transit services.”
Any open mobile product that presents a certified contactless payment will be accepted, Bravo says, “so long as it is a part of a payments network supported by DTPW’s merchant acquirer.” Faregates and fareboxes will be updated with contactless readers that accept branded contactless payments.
“The system is already operational and current features will continue to be supported,” Bravo says. “Users will begin to have access to new features as the back office cuts over to the cloud within 12 months.”
The $33 million contract marks one of the first instances of a U.S. agency incorporating technology developed by Transport for London. The British capital’s transit agency recently opened its technology, which was developed in conjunction with Cubic, to international licensing.
Miami-Dade’s transit agency includes 25 miles of elevated, rapid-transit train tracks and more than 800 buses that travel approximately 29 million miles annually across more than 95 routes.
