Convenience, accessibility and diversity are the key words for transportation fare collection in 2012.  Momentum is building toward transit operators allowing riders to pay with contactless debit and credit cards as well as mobile phones for their transit fares.  

The progression of transit ticketing systems into open payment systems is primarily being driven by the introduction and widespread adoption of contactless debit and credit cards as well as new programs designed for processing low-value transactions.

With the expanding integration of near field communication (NFC) technology into mobile devices, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that recent research estimates half a billion people will be using mobile devices as travel tickets by 2015. It is only recently that banks and cell phone providers have begun to open up to NFC for making mobile payments and other uses. 

As summer arrives, Cubic’s leadership in open payment systems for revenue management is blossoming with the introduction of Nextaccount, the first of several new products in Cubic’s solution systems portfolio for the next generation of fully integrated Automated Fare Collection (AFC) systems. 

The transit industry is on the verge of a transformation, and Nextaccount creates the ability for transit agencies to continue to reduce their cost of fare collection while improving the traveler and customer experience.