2025 Conference Agenda - Presentations

As Chicago faces increasing urbanization, climate change, and evolving mobility needs, future-proofing its public transit system has become critical to ensuring long-term sustainability, accessibility, and resilience. Identifying strategic approaches for adapting Chicago's transit infrastructure to meet 21st-century challenges, following the pandemic; was key in aligning with environmental goals, leveraging technological advances, and centering equity.  This is a trend for cities around the world in transforming their public transportation systems into models for resilience and inclusivity in urban mobility. Join this fireside chat with Representative Eva-Dina Delgado of the Illinois House of Representatives, representing the 3rd District; and Alex Litchfield, Vice President with Cubic Transportation Systems as they discuss policy innovation, equitable transit, and how data-driven decision-making helped Chicago and other cities build more robust and adaptive transit networks for their riders. 

• Identify key obstacles in the ticketing and payment industry’s technology adoption and discuss how fostering a culture of innovation can overcome them. 
• Evaluate technology trends that will impact the next decade of ticketing and payments, including the increasing adoption of Central Bank Digital Currencies, blockchain, AI and biometrics. 
• Explore the benefits these new technologies can bring to mobility networks and their users; and consider what the passenger experience could look and feel like in 2035 
• How can these innovations be harnessed to solve long-term challenges such as fare equity and inclusion, and seamless multimodal travel? 

Join David Kershaw who heads up the Payments Operations and Assurance team at Transport for London (TfL) about the remarkable journey transforming how millions pay for their daily travel. Explore the evolution from the Oyster card to contactless open loop payments and understand how these innovations now facilitate over 30 million journeys every day on TfL services. Gain insight into how TfL’s pioneering work has not only streamlined its own operations but has also fundamentally changed how consumers across the payment’s ecosystem utilise contactless payment technologies. Hear about the challenges they face and how Transport for London sees the future of public transit ticketing in one of the most historic, vibrant, and diverse cities in the world.

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The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) has been embarking on this transformative journey to modernize the fare collection system, with enhancements to customer experience and operational efficiency. We will take a closer look into the strategic initiatives and technological advancements, by exploring why this was important to us and our riders, our legacy model and the partnership with PRESTO, business and operational impacts, finally our challenges and lessons learned. Join us to discover future endeavors that will continue to propel the TTC’s journey to become more efficient, equitable and customer friendly.

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Launching open-loop payment in a high revenue environment, such as intercity passenger rail in the United States, which has traditionally relied upon Amtrak’s national ticketing, was tailor-made for a pilot program, where many lessons could be learned. The Capitol Corridor Joint Power Authority (CCJPA) took this on, affecting every department. Now, CCJPA is at a point where open-loop payments are poised to expand, but as always, with additional lessons learned and shared in this session.

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After successfully pioneering one of the first Open-Loop, Open-Standards fare collection systems in the U.S., Monterey Salinas Transit has made the commitment to complete the transition by the end of 2026. To get there will mean transitioning all the remaining methods of purchasing a ride on MST. In this session, Michael Kohlman, CIO of MST, will give a quick overview of where the agency is at, and the steps it is taking to complete this journey.

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• ·Which costs should agencies rolling out open-loop payments be prepared for (and sometimes are not)? Merchant-service fees? Keeping terminals certified? Fraud and chargebacks?
• Examine the coexistence of closed-loop and open-loop fare payment systems, highlighting benefits, challenges and innovations for transit agencies
• Analyse key differences between closed-loop and open-loop systems focusing on aspects such as control, security, equity and cost-efficiency
• Practical insights and strategies for implementing and integrating both systems to enhance fare collection.

In just over one year, The Chicago Transit Authority, with Scheidt and Bachmann, successfully completed the installation of 2000 FB/30 fareboxes on the entire bus fleet, including vaulting equipment at seven bus garages, and an integrated back-office data system. Challenges included scheduling around an active fleet, operator training, identifying and tracking defects, managing software upgrades, scrutinizing reporting procedures, reconciling revenue and ridership data, and transitioning maintenance responsibilities. Lessons learned will be presented from a contract management perspective.

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• Explore how ABT can enhance the travel experience by enabling seamless multi-modal journeys with a single account and discuss the benefits this integration brings to riders  
• Address the technical, financial and operational challenges agencies face when adopting ABT systems and identify solutions to streamline the transition    
• Examine how agencies can leverage real-time fare collection during vendor negotiations to turn ABT implementation challenges into strategic advantages
• Discuss strategies to enhance the passenger experience through ABT without losing key features like accurate fare calculation, enforcement and customer consistency

• The adoption of mobile ticketing and digital wallets 
• Delivering a mobile first ticketing strategy: QR, virtualized cards, mobile apps and mobile top-ups  
• Explore how card virtualisation technology is transforming the way commuters' access, pay & use transit services, making mobility more convenient and user-friendly  
• Ensuring seamless integration, safeguarding data and overcoming technical challenges in mobile ticketing  
• Addressing the digital divide and ensuring mobile ticketing solutions cater to all passengers, including those without smartphones  

• Identify current trends in fare evasion, understand the impact of fraudulent travel and revenue loss and explore effective strategies to mitigate both challenges.   
• Discuss how data analytics, AI and other innovative initiatives can help in detecting and preventing revenue leakage within transit systems   
• Analyze how revenue protection measures can provide assurance to customers, consider when enforcement costs might outweigh benefits and explore public perceptions of fare evasion 
• Discuss how coordination, knowledge sharing and partnership work can reduce fare evasion

• Learn more about the latest schemes in fare evasion, counterfeit passes and digital fraud, trends in transit fraud  

• Learn how partnerships between small, flexible operators and experienced suppliers foster frictionless and omnichannel payment services for public transport
• Explore the role of flexibility, technology and established routines in enabling operators to meet evolving customer needs
• How strategic partnerships unlock creative solutions, enabling operators to overcome challenges