Transport Ticketing North America 2026

Following a joint RFP process involving 10 Californian transportation agencies, MST selected Jawnt to deploy a fully reloadable open-loop bus pass with the potential to work on any agency system that accepts contactless open-loop transactions.

Unlike previous regional bus pass procurement that required agencies to operate under a single managed vendor structure, this approach allows each agency to procure a pass under its own contractual agreement, select the specifics it needs and self-brand if it wishes. By using a common set of standards, passengers could ultimately buy 'one card' that works across participating systems, creating interconnected independently managed fare solutions.

As transit agencies introduce new payment providers, methods and channels, managing the growing complexity of payments is becoming increasingly important. This fireside chat will explore how payment gateways and intelligent orchestration can provide agencies with greater control over their payment ecosystems, reducing complexity while preserving choice, resilience and flexibility. The discussion will examine how agencies can optimize payment performance, manage risk, improve financial visibility and reduce dependency on individual providers, while creating the flexibility to adopt emerging payment technologies without continually rebuilding their systems.

• How to identify cyber security weaknesses, make recommendations on solutions and provide insight into improving customers' experiences
• Analyse emerging cyber threats in the transport ticketing ecosystem, from ransomware to fraud and their potential impact on global transit systems
• Explore encryption, multi-factor authentication and other critical security measures to protect sensitive information in ticketing transactions and customer accounts
• The role of Government, transport operators and cybersecurity experts in creating international standards and fostering real-time threat intelligence sharing

Join this session to hear how MARTA launched the new Better Breeze fare payment system in time for the 2026 World Cup soccer games in Atlanta. The presentation will offer lessons learned from the solicitation, design and implementation processes that led to a successful rollout this past spring.  

In 2026, IndyGo began the transition from its legacy fare collection system to MyKey+, reshaping how riders pay for and access transit across Indianapolis. Just months into the rollout, this session will explore the drivers behind the transformation, how lessons from the previous MyKey system informed the new approach, and how IndyGo is balancing fare capping and cash accessibility with onboard BRT validation and the retirement of legacy infrastructure. It will also share early lessons from implementation and how these are shaping the next phase of IndyGo’s fare and payments strategy.

Faced with an obsolete cash collection system and one-time infusion of funding from the State, Santa Cruz METRO is taking a multi-pronged approach to serving the fare payment needs of its riders. METRO rider segments include students, social housing tenants, commuters, and everyday riders — including many persons living in disadvantaged communities (DACs). Identifying the best solution for each segment requires a thoughtful, inclusive approach that accounts for riders’ varying needs, resources, and access to technology.

Join this session to hear how ORCA’s open payments program has performed nine months after the launch. The presentation will explore adoption and usage trends, tap statistics from the last World Cup, comparisons with overall ORCA payment volumes, open payments fee optimization, debit recovery success rates, and other key lessons learned since implementation.

Open-loop payments are no longer a future ambition; they're becoming the new standard. Implementation is only the beginning. As agencies look to maximise return on investment, the focus is shifting to operational performance, revenue protection and delivering better passenger outcomes.

• How can agencies maximise the return on their open-loop investment? Discover how leading operators are reducing revenue leakage, improving payment performance and using data to strengthen financial and operational outcomes.
• What have agencies learned since going live? Hear practical lessons on procurement, legacy integration, customer adoption, payment risk and the operational realities of managing open loop at scale.
• How can open-loop become the foundation for better passenger experiences? Explore how agencies are enhancing fare capping, concessions and multimodal travel to deliver simpler, more seamless journeys.
• What's next for transit payments? As open loop matures, what should agencies prioritise next?

• Examine how host cities integrated event and transport ticketing to move millions of fans efficiently and safely
• Explore lessons learned around fare models, digital ticketing, crowd management and multimodal journey planning
• Discuss how World Cup innovations can shape the future of public transport and major event mobility across North America

• Explore the challenges of integrating legacy infrastructure, complex fare rules and multiple payment and ticketing channels while maintaining performance and reliability
• Examine how ABT can support fare capping, concessions and more seamless travel across modes, operators and regional networks
• Hear practical lessons on back-office integration, interoperability, customer adoption and operational resilience

• Discover how transit operators and authorities are turning fare and payment data into actionable insights that improve ridership, revenue and service planning
• Explore the challenges of balancing personalization, interoperability and innovation with growing privacy and cybersecurity requirements
• Learn how leading agencies are breaking down silos between ticketing, payments and operations to make smarter decisions in real time

• How are transit agencies balancing affordability and equity with ridership growth and the need to maintain sustainable revenues? 
• Examine how ABT, open payments and mobile solutions are enabling more flexible fare models and simpler passenger experience 
• Address the challenge of modernising fare collection while ensuring cash-dependent, unbanked and vulnerable passengers remain included

Fare collection transitions are among the most complex phases of modern fare payment system implementations. While agencies often focus on defining future-state technology and functionality, transition planning benefits from early, deliberate attention to ensure customer, operational, and system readiness. Experience across major fare-collection modernizations shows that when agencies clearly define their transition objectives and constraints upfront, it provides a stronger foundation for vendors to design effective, tailored transition approaches.

This session explores how early transition planning supports phased system design, parallel operations, and coordinated customer communication. Topics include aligning transition strategies with implementation sequencing, managing coexistence between legacy and new systems, and integrating transition considerations into governance, timelines, and outcome-based requirements. By treating transition planning as a core element of project success alongside extensive planning and realistic schedules, this session offers practical insights into how thoughtful, upfront transition strategies can improve outcomes for agencies, vendors, and riders.

• Discover the latest 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
• Hear how collaborative approaches across agencies, operators and partners can deliver consistent policies, shared solutions and stronger network integrity

• Why fare collection projects often exceed budgets and practical strategies to improve procurement efficiency and financial outcomes
• The benefits of splitting equipment and separating components to drive competition, flexibility and innovation
• Are current procurement systems fit for purpose? How can authorities give big suppliers clarity and small suppliers the freedom to innovate?

• Discuss how digital wallets are transforming the way passengers interact with transit systems, from ticketing to real-time payments
• Address barriers like infrastructure compatibility, security concerns and user adoption, while exploring future opportunities for innovation
• How digital wallets can support broader goals like multimodal transportation, sustainability and personalized customer experience

• Explore how EMV white label technology creates a unified standard for transit fare systems, combining traditional closed-loop and open-loop EMV approaches into a scalable, secure payment infrastructure.
• Discuss how adopting EMV white label can streamline ticketing infrastructure for operators, reduce maintenance costs and offer passengers flexible payment options with familiar contactless interfaces, including digital wallets and account-based ticketing
• Examine the role of EMV white label in enabling integrated, multimodal travel experiences and supporting future-orientated frameworks such as ABT & MaaS.

As the 2026 World Cup came to the US, Keolis — the MBTA’s Operating & Maintenance partner of Greater Boston’s Commuter Rail network — faced a daunting challenge: operating a special stadium train service to deliver 40k journeys to/from a stadium >20 miles from Boston, on 7 distinct match days. In this session, Keolis will share lessons learned from the extensive ticketing preparations through day-of delivery, including training a dedicated team of temporary ticketing staff, deploying temporary ticket validation hardware, supporting more than 100k ticket sales, pivoting fare policy to meet evolving customer needs, and standing up on-site sales mid-event.

In 2024, Metro set out to introduce open-loop payments in response to the changing payments expectations of its customers. As a capital city and major international tourist destination, the use of open payments for transit fares is expected and Metro needed to provide that functionality, especially as a host city for World Pride 2025. The project went live in May 2025 taking just six months to design, develop, test and deploy.

Since the successful launch on Metro, the WMATA team have now launched across Metrobus, Metro Parking and are expanding to regional partners in early 2027.

Come and hear from the team behind that deployment to hear how it was achieved.