NEORide, the Council of Governments representing 31 transit agencies across 7 states, has announced a new multi-year contract continuing its partnership with Masabi, following a successful launch in 2019. The partnership between NEORide and Masabi has been instrumental in the development and delivery of EZfare, the leading fare payment platform now used by 15 transit agencies across Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and West Virginia.
With this new contract, both organizations are poised to continue their collaborative efforts to deliver innovative solutions for transit agencies and their riders across the Midwest and beyond. Masabi’s open platform approach will see the continued deployment of advanced features such as account-based ticketing, open payments, mobility app integrations, fare capping, rewards, hardware integrations and more. These enhancements will streamline the transit experience, offering riders across participating EZfare agencies smarter and more convenient ways to access and pay for public transit locally and regionally.
Since 2019, Masabi and NEORide have worked to create the largest multi-county and multi-state fare payment service in the United States with a total combined ridership of more than 50 million people. In 2020, Masabi's SDK enabled EZfare to integrate mobile ticketing into leading mobility apps including the Transit app, Uber and Moovit. In the same year, automatic ticket validation was launched supported by Masabi's Justride multi-format onboard validation devices, enabling electronic scanning and the launch of Account-Based Ticketing. In 2021, cash digitization and Stored Value Accounts (SVA), allowed riders to convert cash into digital credit at local retailers, along with agency staff supporting cash riders using Masabi’s Justride Retail Sales Portal at transit centers. In 2023, Account-Based Ticketing was launched, meaning that instead of purchasing tickets or passes for each journey, fares are calculated automatically based on a passenger’s taps of the new EZfare smart cards or the EZfare app and the appropriate fare is deducted from the rider’s account thanks to fare capping technology.
Katherine Conrad, Executive Director of NEORide, said: "We are thrilled to renew our partnership with Masabi as we work together to revolutionize transit payments and technology for our agencies and their riders. This new contract underscores our commitment to providing seamless and efficient next-generation solutions for our transit agency members and includes provisions both for continued expansion of NEORide and for the onboarding and deployment of new technologies and partners, further enhancing our offering."
Brian Zanghi, CEO at Masabi, said: “Working with NEORide we have built EZfare to become the biggest and most successful regional full fare collection system in the United States, leveraging our innovative mobile-first approach to deliver state-of-the-art fare payments technology that supports all rider types. Our goal at Masabi is to enable transit agencies to quickly and cost-effectively offer their riders the option to pay using whatever is in their pocket, and with the launch of account-based ticketing EZfare agencies are well on the way to realizing this.”
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