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NICE to Become One of First U.S. Bus Transit Systems To Offer Mobile Ticketing

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LINK: http://www.longislandexchange.com/press-releases/nice-bus-to-become-one-of-first-u-s-bus-transit-systems-to-offer-mobile-ticketing/

(Long Island, NY) The Nassau Inter-County Express (NICE) announced today that it has signed a pilot agreement with Masabi, a leader in mobile ticketing and electronic payments for transit, to bring smartphone ticketing to NICE bus riders. NICE will become among the first U.S. bus transit systems to offer smartphone ticketing to its customers featuring smartphone payment apps for both iPhone and Android. NICE’s paratransit system, known as Able-Ride, will allow customers to use the same smartphone app to pay their fares.

NICE is a public-private operating partnership between Nassau County and Veolia Transportation. Veolia manages all aspects of the transit system under contract to the county, effectively serving as the transit agency.

With the new mobile ticketing system, riders will be able to purchase bus tickets at their convenience, and activate them as they board the vehicle. Upon boarding, riders will display to the operator a secure, visually verifiable ticket on their smartphones. For added security, mobile tickets will also feature scannable barcodes for occasional spot checks by NICE officials. In future phases of the project, NICE may install hardware that allows riders to pay by scanning a barcode, or simply bringing their smart device in close proximity to a sensor.

“This project is one of several recent technology initiatives at NICE bus which will help transform the experience of riding transit in Nassau County. We believe our customers will embrace mobile ticketing as they have in other systems around the country” said Michael Setzer, NICE Chief Executive Officer. “Our recent on-board survey revealed that nearly 70 percent of NICE riders own smartphones, suggesting that the mobile platform is a great way to connect with our customers and provide them additional convenience.”

With this new initiative, NICE will dramatically expand the ease and convenience with which its customers can buy bus tickets. Another benefit is that it will speed up the boarding process. Currently, NICE riders have limited payment options: they can either pay with correct change on the bus or use the MTA-issued MetroCard. However, there is only one MTA location in Nassau County with full-service vending machines that allow riders to buy and reload MetroCards.

Over time, mobile ticketing should also help reduce fare collection costs. NICE fareboxes are antiquated, dating back to the late 1990s, and the costs of maintenance, replacement parts and cash handling are rapidly increasing.

“While we will continue to coordinate with the MTA for all customers that transfer between our transit systems, we made it a priority when NICE was launched to start developing our own payment solution,” said Setzer. “We think mobile ticketing is a low cost, rapidly deployable and flexible alternative that will make it easier for many riders to pay their fare.”

NICE is deploying Masabi’s JustRide product, a well tested, end-to-end mobile ticketing and fare collection system. The award-winning product includes features such as ticket purchase, user display and easy validation together with sophisticated back-end infrastructure for secure payments, ticket management, customer service, reporting and real-time analytics. Masabi currently serves 17 transportation and retail companies worldwide including Boston’s MBTA and San Diego’s MTS in the U.S. and Virgin Trains and Cross Country in the U.K.

“We are delighted to be working with NICE to put a personalized ticket machine into the pocket of each of their customers, making searching for change to board the bus a thing of the past,” said Josh Robin, Vice President – North America at Masabi. “We are excited to welcome NICE to our growing family of U.S. deployments and look forward to working with them on deploying smartphone ticketing and future payment technologies.”

NICE officials plan to start beta testing with a select group of riders this spring, with full rollout this summer. Riders are encouraged to apply at www.nicebus.com to participate in the beta testing. NICE also encourages customers to take a brief survey on the site that will help NICE better understand how they currently use technology.

 

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Statement from NICE:

 

1609865_723928660972172_435900271_n.png

 

We are excited to announce that we have signed a pilot agreement with Masabi to bring smartphone ticketing to NICE bus riders this summer! With the new mobile ticketing system, bus riders and AbleRide customers will be able to purchase tickets at their convenience and activate them as they board the vehicle. Upon boarding, riders will display to the operator a secure, visually verifiable ticket on their smartphones.

Please take our fare payment survey! The survey will help us prepare for our mobile ticketing launch, and offers you the chance to be a beta tester this spring. Plus, if you complete the entire survey and give us your email address, you will be eligible to win one of 10 free 30-day MetroCards! http://bit.ly/1cVmda1

Want to learn more about the project? Check out the press release here. http://bit.ly/ikClkaP
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Via Garibaldi 8

Via Garibaldi 8

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Wait so all they have to do is show the operators their phones? No scanning or anything? I feel this can get...what's a good word..hacked[?] in the near future.

lol... Listen in Japan you can do just about everything with your cell phone, including open your apartment door... We're way behind here... The (MTA) needs this and fast... I would use this in a heart beat.  As it is now, it's annoying to have to schlepp to a subway to buy refill my Metrocard for the express bus and a real hassle if I don't do it in the city since there are no subways here in Riverdale.

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Vistausss

Vistausss

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lol... Listen in Japan you can do just about everything with your cell phone, including open your apartment door... We're way behind here... The (MTA) needs this and fast... I would use this in a heart beat.  As it is now, it's annoying to have to schlepp to a subway to buy refill my Metrocard for the express bus and a real hassle if I don't do it in the city since there are no subways here in Riverdale.

 

You can refill your MetroCard automatically with Easy Pay Xpress.

 

Comparing to Japan is unfair as is. Even in Europe smart cards are very popular in contrary to smartphone apps although experimenting with that does happen here and there.

 

It's funny though that this phenomenon of paying with your mobile phone started years ago in Belgium, although w/o a smartphone obviously. Till date they use it as an alternate form of payment. You send a text message to their SMS number, it deducts the fare from your phone bill and you get a text message back with proof of payment which you show to the b/o upon boarding.

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Via Garibaldi 8

Via Garibaldi 8

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You can refill your MetroCard automatically with Easy Pay Xpress.

 

Comparing to Japan is unfair as is. Even in Europe smart cards are very popular in contrary to smartphone apps although experimenting with that does happen here and there.

 

It's funny though that this phenomenon of paying with your mobile phone started years ago in Belgium, although w/o a smartphone obviously. Till date they use it as an alternate form of payment. You send a text message to their SMS number, it deducts the fare from your phone bill and you get a text message back with proof of payment which you show to the b/o upon boarding.

Yeah but Easy Pay Xpress only works for Pay-Per-Rides and monthly unlimited Metrocards. I've wrote to the (MTA) about this discrepancy as to why they aren't offered for all Metrocards and they forwarded my comment to the folks that handle that department, so maybe in the future we'll see it offered for all Metrocards.

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Cait Sith

Cait Sith

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Wait so all they have to do is show the operators their phones? No scanning or anything? I feel this can get...what's a good word..hacked[?] in the near future.

 

It's in conjunction with NFC, much like how there are some credit/debit cards with that tap-to-pay system like the system that was tested out in NYC.

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Orion VII 4 Life

Orion VII 4 Life

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It's in conjunction with NFC, much like how there are some credit/debit cards with that tap-to-pay system like the system that was tested out in NYC.

Uh, I don't think it's gonna work with NFC at first. Plus you have us iPhone people who don't have NFC.

 

The train fare app in NJ (NJT MyTix) seems to be pretty damn similar to this. I use it and it just has a barcode on the screen, when the conductors come by and check tickets I show them my phone and they don't even scan or do anything, they just take a quick look and walk on. It does have an up to the second time clock on the bottom of the screen which constantly changes, so I guess that's how they verify it's a current valid ticket.

I know... As long as this system supports the Metrocard (or anything else that the (MTA) uses then it's immaterial).

Right, I'm saying as long as they don't get rid of the Metro it should be fine. We don't know if they plan on getting rid of the Metro or not.

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Via Garibaldi 8

Via Garibaldi 8

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Uh, I don't think it's gonna work with NFC at first. Plus you have us iPhone people who don't have NFC.

 

The train fare app in NJ (NJT MyTix) seems to be pretty damn similar to this. I use it and it just has a barcode on the screen, when the conductors come by and check tickets I show them my phone and they don't even scan or do anything, they just take a quick look and walk on. It does have an up to the second time clock on the bottom of the screen which constantly changes, so I guess that's how they verify it's a current valid ticket.

Right, I'm saying as long as they don't get rid of the Metro it should be fine. We don't know if they plan on getting rid of the Metro or not.

Yeah I don't see why they would... It would be pretty foolish of them if they did. I think this method of paying makes sense, given how suburban some parts of Long Island are.

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peacemak3r

peacemak3r

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lol... Listen in Japan you can do just about everything with your cell phone, including open your apartment door... We're way behind here... The (MTA) needs this and fast... I would use this in a heart beat.  As it is now, it's annoying to have to schlepp to a subway to buy refill my Metrocard for the express bus and a real hassle if I don't do it in the city since there are no subways here in Riverdale.

 

Did you even read my post? Where did I ever say we shouldn't use it at all? I said if we only have to show what's on the screen, people can manipulate the screen! At the very least, I would have expected you to understand that post.

 

It's in conjunction with NFC, much like how there are some credit/debit cards with that tap-to-pay system like the system that was tested out in NYC.

Someone understood my post. NFC would make more sense than just showing what's on a screen. Something like the blink feature on most credit/debit cards.

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Cait Sith

Cait Sith

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Uh, I don't think it's gonna work with NFC at first. Plus you have us iPhone people who don't have NFC.

 

You never know, it is listed as a possibility. It could be both barcode scan and NFC, it could be anything.

 

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What kinda bothers me is that they have all of these projects in store for NICE, one of the last ones mentioned was real-time tracking. They announced that so long ago. I wonder what happened with that idea.

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Orion VII 4 Life

Orion VII 4 Life

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What kinda bothers me is that they have all of these projects in store for NICE, one of the last ones mentioned was real-time tracking. They announced that so long ago. I wonder what happened with that idea.

Clever Devices was awarded the contract a few months ago, we should start seeing the new system rolled out to the older buses sometime this year and the actual BusTime system being launched towards the end of the year.

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N6 Limited

N6 Limited

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Clever Devices was awarded the contract a few months ago, we should start seeing the new system rolled out to the older buses sometime this year and the actual BusTime system being launched towards the end of the year.

Nice! We can make it a game! "Guess the Pass-ups!" You guess which buses will pass up which stops.

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RtrainBlues

RtrainBlues

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I'm not sure who will use this the app - certainly not the students coming from the F train who can't afford the LIRR and need their free transfer with the Metrocard, the working poor who don't own smartphones, and the homeless who regularly ride routes like the N40/N41 and toss in a quarter and consider that their fare payment.  I know I'm not paying a double-fare to ride the delayed slow NICE buses.  If I ever needed to pay a double-fare, I would drop NICE and pay the extra dollar or two to the LIRR.

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qjtransitmaster

qjtransitmaster

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I'm not sure who will use this the app - certainly not the students coming from the F train who can't afford the LIRR and need their free transfer with the Metrocard, the working poor who don't own smartphones, and the homeless who regularly ride routes like the N40/N41 and toss in a quarter and consider that their fare payment.  I know I'm not paying a double-fare to ride the delayed slow NICE buses.  If I ever needed to pay a double-fare, I would drop NICE and pay the extra dollar or two to the LIRR.

Please stop it's to attract NEW riders!!! Most Nassau residents can afford a smartphone.  Drop NICE what if your destination requires you to transfer from the LIRR to NICE? 

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