MET Transit, the metropolitan transit system for the city of Billings, Mont., awarded Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) a contract to deliver the company’s TouchPass electronic fare collection-as-a-service offering.
CTS says MET Transit, which will utilize Cubic’s TouchPass solution as its electronic fare system for its fixed-route and paratransit systems, will join more than two dozen other agencies that are also using TouchPass.
TouchPass is a cloud-based, fully configurable, complete fare collection solution available to transit agencies of all sizes. In addition to providing a full set of features, it gives passengers the convenience of purchasing passes and stored value in a range of online and physical venues and to use their fare media at every agency using TouchPass technology.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has proven the true value of a fully electronic fare collection solution for public transportation; a contactless fare payment and boarding experience is critical in order to keep travelers safe with simpler and quicker payment systems,” said Mick Spiers, vice president and general manager, Cubic Transportation Platforms. “Additionally, TouchPass allows agencies to access all the benefits of a large-scale account-based ticketing system at a fraction of the cost. We are thrilled to introduce our scalable and versatile solution to the city of Billings.”
“The city of Billings MET Transit division was seeking a new electronic fare system that could be rapidly deployed and would fully support our current fare policy,” said Rusty Logan, transit manager, MET Transit. “We selected TouchPass because it exceeded our requirements most notably in security, convenience, flexibility and data gathering capabilities. Delerrok has had a fare collection presence in the transit industry for quite some time; as they now have combined with Cubic, we felt very confident in selecting a well-established fare collection system from a trusted and reliable source.”
Cubic’s TouchPass solution is available for rapid implementation and requires no additional agency resources. Built for real-time fare payment processing, TouchPass offers online and mobile transit account management and fare product purchasing, as well as fare payment functions using a variety of fare media. The solution collects and analyzes passenger boarding data, allowing for secure real-time fare calculation. It also provides rapid configuration of user interfaces and agency fare policy without the need for any new software development. TouchPass’ multi-tenant, cloud-based architecture offers virtually unlimited scalability and includes continuous upgrades.