LONDON—Will a new deal involving the contactless payment system used with London's mass transit network spur greater acceptance of contactless payments across the U.S.?
That may happen, says John Hill, senior account director for Cubic Transportation Systems Europe, whose company closed an agreement with Transport for London (TFL) to allow Cubic to adapt its contactless ticketing system based on improvements made by TFL and license it around the world.
“There is no doubt this is the future for transit payments. We are getting interest in contactless payments from everywhere we do business around the world,” said Hill about improvements coming to the contactless payments experience from the new agreement. “This agreement should not only heighten interest in contactless payments for mass transit systems worldwide, but also the general use of contactless payments in the U.S.”
Contactless Slow To Grow
Hill said that when contactless payments were adopted by the London mass transit system that the overall acceptance of contactless payments in that country rose.
“That is what we saw happen in the U.K.,” said Hill. “Contactless payments for mass transit here, while not a trigger, certainly appears to have helped with the takeoff of contactless across the board in the U.K. The same thing will happen in the U.S., where contactless acceptance has been slow to build.”
Cubic now will be given access to London's contactless system so that it can tailor TFL improvements for other transportation networks. Cubic also provides similar ticketing technology to Brisbane, Chicago, Sydney and Vancouver.
What is most interesting about the deal, said Hill, is that the changes will significantly improve the contactless payments experience for mass transit.
“What TFL has done is enhance the user experience and made it very compelling for mass transit system riders to use contactless,” said Hill.
John Hill
Hill explained that if a person uses a contactless card or a digital wallet on London’s transit network the system keeps track of a person’s journeys on the network for the entire day.
“You then get a single charge at end of the day,” said Hill. “And the system takes into account some complex fare rules to make sure you get the best price for all the trips you made that day. It’s called daily capping. The system can also do that for riders on a weekly basis, as well. What this does, essentially, is give people the confidence they will be charged the correct fare for their journeys.”
Contactless The Future For Mass Transit
Within the next year Hill thinks Cubic’s contactless payments solution, Nextaccount, will be upgraded and then offered to cities globally—existing customers and new ones.
Hill said that transport agencies around the world are specifying acceptance of contactless.
“Again, it’s the future of public transportation ticketing,” said Hill, noting that the City of New York has reached out to Cubic about possibly installing a contactless system for their mass transit system.
“New York is looking for a system to replace the Metro Card, and they have specified this new type of ticketing system.”