Franchising is a key part of public transport reform across the UK. For local authorities, it offers the opportunity to take greater control over local transport networks, improve service quality, and deliver a more consistent experience for passengers.
But designing a successful franchised fare collection system raises important questions. When you have multiple operators, different hardware providers, and a range of ticketing solutions already in use, how do you bring everything together into a unified whole? How do you make the network feel joined up for passengers while still giving operators the flexibility to deliver great service? How do you create a new regional fare system that does not cannibalise existing revenue?
Creating a successful fare collection system for your new franchised region is never about a single decision or piece of technology. It depends on the overall approach, combining effective technology with the right policies. The central back office plays a crucial role, giving operators a common platform for consistency, fairness, and accurate application of fare rules, capping and concessions. But that technology alone is not enough. Clear, easy-to-understand policies, agreed by all parties, are just as important to make the system work in practice. Only by aligning both technology and policy can a set of separate services be transformed into one integrated network. It is the system that turns a group of services into a single, integrated network.
Whether you are transitioning to a franchising model or evolving an existing system, the questions in this guide are designed to help you think through the key challenges and requirements for fare collection. From choosing the right platform to aligning fare zones and enabling interoperability, each one plays a role in creating a system that works for local authorities, operators and passengers alike.
1. Can I utilise existing hardware and infrastructure already in-situ?
Transitioning to a fare collection system for a new franchised area does not mean replacing everything you already have. A modern, flexible back office should be able to connect with existing validators, ticket machines and communication systems. That said, the existing technology infrastructure will need to be analysed and assessed ahead of any back-office procurement to ensure compatibility and integration requirements. Sometimes it can make more sense to align hardware across the network, or do so over time.
Masabi’s position
Masabi’s Justride platform is designed to integrate with a wide range of hardware through open standards and cloud-based architecture. In most cases, devices can be connected directly to the central back office with minimal modification or software updates rather than full replacement.
This approach allows authorities to protect their existing investment while moving toward a modern, account-based system. It reduces capital expenditure, shortens deployment times and avoids unnecessary disruption to ongoing operations. Authorities can evolve their networks at the right pace, maintaining service continuity while building a foundation for future growth.
2. Should you choose a bespoke or SaaS-based fare collection back office?
One of the first decisions to make is what type of back-office system you want for your fare collection solution. Bespoke single-instance systems can offer benefits but are costly to build and maintain, slow to adapt, and difficult to scale. Even small changes can require expensive development work and retesting, which can slow down progress and add unnecessary complexity to your operations. They also take years to develop before they go live and have a history of long overruns and failed launches.
Forward-thinking authorities are instead taking up the option to select multi-tenant SaaS platforms. What is SaaS? Simply put, SaaS, or Software as a Service, means that the back-office software is built, hosted and architected in the cloud by trusted global providers such as Amazon Web Services, rather than running on its own hosted or on-premise environment that requires regular maintenance and upgrades throughout a contract’s lifespan.
In a SaaS environment, each passenger, transport authority or operator has its own securely segregated data while sharing the same cloud platform. This model allows every customer to benefit from continuous innovation, as enhancements made for one customer become available to all. The result is a naturally evolving platform with a steady stream of updates and improvements. Beyond that, SaaS offers major advantages in cost efficiency, faster deployments, scalability and the ability to integrate modular, best-in-class components.
Fare rules, entitlements and fare media are all managed centrally in the back office, making it easier to scale the system as more services and operators come on board. This reduces the burden on local systems and ensures consistency across the network.
For franchised systems, a SaaS-based approach offers the flexibility and consistency needed to support long-term growth while reducing operational overhead and improving the passenger experience. New functionality can be deployed rapidly across the network, keeping fare collection aligned with the latest industry standards and customer expectations. This ensures the system remains future-ready, scalable and sustainable, while giving transport authorities the freedom to focus on delivering better services for passengers rather than maintaining complex technology infrastructure.
Masabi’s position
Masabi’s Enterprise SaaS platform provides a comprehensive solution for larger cities and regions, combining the benefits of a SaaS model with the flexibility of an open platform and a strong partner ecosystem. This approach is already being applied through regional projects such as ARTM’s in Montréal.
This project highlights how an Enterprise SaaS model can unify complex regional networks under a single, scalable platform. With continuous updates delivered seamlessly, authorities benefit from a solution that evolves alongside their policies and operations. It provides the agility to integrate services, reduce operational overhead and keep networks aligned with changing passenger needs.
Local authorities looking to introduce franchising share similar goals: aligning fare policy, improving integration and delivering consistent passenger experiences across multiple operators. With a modular, enterprise SaaS platform like Masabi’s Justride, they can coordinate services through one central back office while maintaining flexibility, lowering costs and driving ongoing innovation.
3. Are SaaS implementations quicker than traditional on-premise solutions?
SaaS implementations are proven to deliver faster and smoother results than traditional bespoke systems. Because the platform is already live, tested and continually enhanced with new functionalities, implementation focuses on configuration rather than building or customising software from the ground up.
This approach removes much of the complexity, risk and time that typically slow traditional projects. The more SaaS deployments completed, the better the collective understanding of what works best, and that experience translates directly into shorter timescales and smoother launches.
Masabi’s delivery model benefits from this proven approach. Each new authority, operator or franchise builds on established processes and pre-tested integrations, reducing setup time and ensuring predictable outcomes. This allows authorities to move from planning to launch quickly while maintaining high standards of quality, stability and security.
Masabi’s position
Traditional bespoke systems are typically delivered by dedicated project teams who design, build and maintain a single instance of the system. While this approach can work for individual deployments, it quickly becomes difficult to scale. Each new project requires its own resources and development cycle, often competing for attention and delaying delivery. As every update, enhancement or integration must be handled separately, progress becomes slower, costs rise and innovation stalls.
SaaS removes these limitations. Instead of maintaining separate systems for each customer, a shared platform evolves continuously for all. Improvements are made once and benefit everyone using the service, eliminating the backlog and enabling faster, more reliable delivery. Masabi’s Enterprise SaaS platform, Justride, provides this advantage, with every deployment benefiting from collective experience and continuous innovation. The result is a scalable, sustainable path to modernisation that keeps all customers aligned with the latest functionality and performance standards.
4. How do I procure for my fare collection system?
When procuring for a fare collection system, the key to long-term success is flexibility. Structuring procurement so that software and hardware are treated separately allows local authorities to choose the best tools for each layer of the system and evolve them independently over time. This approach reduces the risk of vendor lock-in and ensures the system can adapt as technology and policy evolve.
By separating these elements, authorities can take advantage of a proven SaaS platform that delivers continuous updates, scalability and innovation, while maintaining the freedom to integrate new or existing hardware that meets operational needs without requiring a large rip and replace project.
5. Are we supporting the right fare media to meet passenger needs?
The fare collection system you choose should support the fare media that people already use and trust. In the UK, that includes a combination of contactless EMV payments, ITSO smartcards and barcodes. Ensuring these different media work together seamlessly is key to delivering an integrated system that feels familiar and accessible to passengers.
Each of these media types plays an important role. EMV is increasingly popular on buses, offering speed and convenience with no need to pre-load a card. ITSO is still widely used for concession schemes and longer-distance travel, and continues to be a key part of rail journeys. Barcodes are easy to distribute and remain popular across multiple channels including mobile apps for rail and bus journeys alike, offering a lightweight solution that can be quickly adopted across new or existing services.
By supporting a flexible mix of fare media, local authorities can meet passengers where they are today while building a system ready to expand and adapt to new technologies. What matters most is that the experience is consistent and reliable, no matter what the passenger taps or scans. For passengers, this means they should always be charged the right fare and enjoy the same seamless experience whether they are using a contactless card, smartcard or barcode. Behind the scenes, achieving this consistency relies on how fare logic is managed in the back office. Fare logic is the set of rules that determine how fares are calculated, entitlements applied and products recognised. When this logic is centrally coordinated, it ensures that every tap or scan is processed in the same way across the network, reducing complexity for operators and delivering a fair and predictable experience for passengers.
6. Why is account-based ticketing essential for franchised systems?
Account-Based Ticketing (ABT) is a ticketing model that stores fare logic in the central back office instead of on the card or ticket. In traditional card-based systems, the fare logic, which is the set of rules that calculate fares and apply products or entitlements, is stored on the card itself. This requires every card and reader in the network to be updated whenever policies change, which makes it costly and time-consuming for local authorities to manage.
With ABT, the card, phone or barcode simply identifies the passenger’s account, and the system applies the correct fare and entitlements in real time. This makes it possible to deliver policies such as fare capping, real-time concessions and flexible entitlements quickly and consistently across multiple services and operators. It gives local authorities greater flexibility to respond to changes in demand, pricing or eligibility without the burden of issuing new cards or updating every device in the field.
ABT also makes it easier to manage a growing network. New rules, products or discounts can be rolled out centrally, without changing or updating the hardware or reissuing fare media. For passengers, it simplifies the travel experience by ensuring they always get the best fare, no matter how they pay or where they travel. This creates a more intuitive and trustworthy system that supports equity and accessibility.
For a franchised bus operation, ABT is particularly valuable. It enables consistency across a diverse set of operators and services, and allows authorities to apply policy fairly and transparently. You do not need to wait for a full regional rollout. ABT can be introduced in phases, delivering value from day one while laying the groundwork for broader integration.
7. What sets of rules and standards are required to ensure success?
When you have multiple services, suppliers and technologies in play, ensuring that everything works together is one of the biggest challenges.
The UK market is complex so working with a company who is agile enough to interface with industry bodies and standards is critical. ITSO card based technology, Front Office Device Software, Rail Delivery Group Tap Converter Service and Universal Transit Token (future) as well as ISO24014-1 and other important industry standards and specification must be adhered to in order to transact smoothly across all modes and token types.
These standards provide a foundation for consistent communication across hardware and software providers. But the real foundation is a central back office that acts as the single source of truth. Validators, apps and mobile devices all send data to the same place, where consistent fare rules are applied in real time.
A central back office also solves one of the most common challenges in multi-operator systems: validation. When every device relies on the same rules and fare structures, you can be confident that passengers are treated fairly and charges are accurate. This helps maintain trust and removes complexity for both passengers and operators. It ensures the system works as one, regardless of how many different suppliers are involved.
Masabi's perspective
Masabi’s Justride platform ensures all parts of the system are connected and consistent, with real-time fare calculation and validation across multiple media, modes and services. This makes it easier to manage operations, resolve issues and deliver the kind of experience passengers expect from a modern transport network.
8. How can we ensure revenue is apportioned fairly and transparently?
In a franchised model, it is essential that operators are compensated accurately for the journeys they deliver. That means being able to calculate revenue shares in a way that is fair, consistent and easy to audit.
A centralised back office makes this possible by collecting journey data from all connected services and applying agreed rules for revenue apportionment. These rules can be based on zones, distance, time or other criteria, and are managed centrally for full transparency and trust.
Masabi’s fare engine helps calculate revenue shares, helping local authorities reduce disputes, support multi-operator collaboration and ensure that financial processes are aligned with network goals. This simplifies operations and gives operators confidence in the fairness of the system.
9. Is our fare collection system built for long-term sustainability?
Franchised bus networks need systems that can adapt over time. A platform built for today’s needs should also support tomorrow’s services, operators and technologies.
Choosing a SaaS-based fare collection solution provides the flexibility to evolve the system without starting from scratch. Masabi’s Justride platform includes a suite of APIs, SDKs and pre-integrations that make it easy to connect to third-party tools, integrate with other systems and expand as the network grows.
This approach supports continuous improvement, reduces technical debt and ensures that the fare collection system remains aligned with the long-term goals of the franchise.
10. Are we prepared for the operational and passenger impact of the transition?
Introducing a franchised model is not simply a technical adjustment. It can represent a fundamental change in how services are planned, delivered and experienced by passengers. Fare collection is one of the most visible parts of that change, and how it is handled can strongly influence both public perception and operational success.
Authorities need a clear plan for managing the transition, including how systems will be phased in, how passengers will be supported and how policies will be introduced without disruption. A flexible fare collection platform can help by supporting phased rollouts, legacy system integration and consistent messaging across channels. Masabi’s experience in complex system migrations shows that major changes can be delivered safely through a structured, phased approach.
This typically includes a combination of assessing existing infrastructure, integrating legacy equipment, running systems in parallel, migrating services progressively and completing final cutover and stabilisation. Each stage is carefully managed to ensure continuity for both operators and passengers. Using the SAFe Agile framework, Masabi delivers these stages through short, iterative cycles that focus on measurable progress and risk reduction. Every change is fully tested, validated and supported before moving forward. Working closely with authorities and operators, Masabi acts as a trusted delivery partner, combining technical expertise with collaborative planning to maintain stability, minimise disruption and keep passengers moving throughout the transition.
To guide this process, Masabi applies a set of six migration strategies designed to suit each authority’s unique needs. These include updating existing devices, enabling new validators to read old media, converting legacy fare media into new formats, running parallel systems, managing temporary fare-free transitions and coupling back-office integrations. Each strategy is tailored to ensure a smooth transition that keeps networks running while the new system comes online.
11. Can our system scale across regions and models?
Once franchising is in place, the challenge does not end. Over time, authorities may want to add new operators, expand services into neighbouring regions or integrate additional modes of transport at a regional or national level. The fare collection system must be able to support this growth without adding complexity for passengers or authorities.
Masabi’s platform is already proven in large-scale, multi-operator environments, supporting regional systems that continue to grow and evolve. In the United States, the EZfare system operated by Neoride brings together 18 agencies under a single account-based ticketing platform, enabling regional travel and coordinated capping across operators. In Spain, Masabi is working with Xunta de Galicia to deliver a regional pilot that will expand to over 127 operators, creating one of the largest integrated networks of its kind.
These examples show how Masabi’s technology enables authorities to scale confidently, connecting more services and operators while maintaining consistency, performance and a seamless passenger experience.
12. Are our fare zones aligned across all modes?
Consistent fare zones are essential for creating a seamless passenger experience. When different services use different boundaries or pricing rules, passengers are left confused and operators face difficulties applying policy consistently.
Aligning fare zones across all modes and services ensures that capping, concessions and revenue sharing work as intended. A central back office makes it easy to manage these zones and update them when needed, without disrupting services or reissuing media.
This also supports Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platforms, journey planners and other tools that rely on accurate, predictable fare structures to deliver value to passengers.
13. Do we need a middle office, or can the back office do it all?
Some suppliers suggest adding a middle office between validators and the back office to handle EMV transactions. Whilst this can sound helpful, in practice it adds complexity and cost without improving the passenger experience.
A modern central ABT back office already provides the coordination and consistency franchising needs. It applies fare logic, manages settlement, ensures accurate capping and concessions, and keeps all operators and modes working from the same set of rules in real time. The only time a middle office might make sense is when the existing back office is not being replaced. In all other cases, adding an additional system between the front end and the back office only creates unnecessary complexity and additional integration work.
By keeping the architecture simple and direct, authorities can move faster, reduce operational overhead and maintain a single source of truth for all fare policies and transactions. Masabi’s Justride platform is modular and follows this approach, connecting validators, apps and devices directly to the back office to deliver one consistent, unified system without unnecessary layers.
Conclusion
Franchising offers a powerful opportunity to improve public transport, but one of the keys to success depends on getting the fare collection system running across the new franchised operating area. That means starting with the back office.
A centralised, flexible platform gives local authorities the tools to apply policy consistently, integrate services effectively and build a network that works for everyone. From capping and concessions to revenue sharing and scalability, the right foundation enables long-term success.
Masabi’s Justride platform is built to support this journey. With proven technology, open integrations and a focus on real-world outcomes, we help authorities and operators create systems that are easier to manage and better for passengers.
Thinking about fare collection for your franchise? Get in touch with our team today.
Want to explore bus franchising further? Read our blog on the pros and cons of bus franchising.
