Nashville MTA will begin unveiling an exciting new fare payment system in the coming year, which will include customer-friendly amenities such as mobile payments and reloadable electronic fare options.
With the Nashville MTA Board of Director’s approval of the program and contracts, Genfare will be tasked with providing new fare boxes for Nashville MTA vehicles, and INIT will work with Nashville MTA to overhaul our fare system, from collection processes to fare mediums, to create a more seamless and convenient experience for riders.
The new system is slated to include improvements and new technology, such as:
- Smart media validators on Nashville MTA vehicles;
- New ticket vending machines (TVMs); and,
- The ability to purchase and reload smart cards at a variety of locations through a third-party retail distribution network, new TVMs and the Music City Central ticket window, as well as the ability to use their smartphones to pay fare upon boarding the bus in lieu of traditional paper tickets.
The new system will be account-based, which will allow riders to go online and register their fare card, reload value, and view transaction history.
On-board electronic transactions will be processed in real-time and reconciled with the online account, allowing for the Nashville MTA and the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) to adopt new fare structures that make the fare payment experience simple and seamless for customers while speeding up the boarding process.
“By placing the option to purchase or reload your fare in the palm of your hand, using public transit to get around Nashville will become that much more of a logical and convenient choice,” Nashville MTA CEO Steve Bland said. “This exciting new innovation is a big step for Nashville we work to help our riders move smarter in 2018 by making transit easier to use.”
The full system will roll out to the public over the course of 2019 and early 2020, with the mobile ticketing feature coming to customers in 2018.
