Renewed commitment from nation’s 10th largest transit agency to the world’s most innovative fare-payments technology vendor underscores how a platform can reduce costs and enhance public transportation accessibility
The Regional Transportation District (RTD), the transit agency for the Denver metro area, announced a contract extension to continue its partnership with Masabi. The Fare Payments-as-a-Service platform, Justride, offers an Account-Based Ticketing solution so that customers can simply tap MyRide smart cards or scan the MyRide app when boarding buses or at a rail station instead of purchasing passes upfront. Fare capping ensures customers pay the lowest fares at daily and monthly limits. This ensures all customers get access to the attractive pricing of period passes.
RTD and Masabi have worked together in a multi-award-winning partnership since 2017 that has delivered several fare payment world-firsts. These innovations are modernizing and enhancing customers’ access to Denver’s public transit network. Under the terms of the extended agreement, Masabi will continue to provide RTD with its cutting-edge end-to-end fare payment platform, which includes mobile ticketing solutions and fare payment validation to streamline the transit experience for customers and operations for RTD.
Since Masabi and RTD launched mobile ticketing to travel across all RTD modes of transit in the Denver metro area, the partners have created a world-leading example of the power of a mobile-first approach. Where RTD initially deployed a mobile-only solution using the Justride platform, the solution now extends to supporting the full purchase and payment system to include other customer groups and fare media in a seamless and secure system.
In May 2019, Denver became the first city worldwide to enable customers to purchase public transit tickets and ride public transport through the Uber app. This provides customers with end-to-end travel so that they can ride an Uber and then a bus or train, planning their entire trip and making payments from within a single mobile application. Ticketing with RTD was also enabled in the Transit app. The ability to plan a combined trip on RTD services and the Colorado Department of Transportation’s statewide Bustang bus service in the Transit app and purchase Justride tickets for both agencies through the app was introduced in early 2024.
Doug MacLeod, Chief Financial Officer at RTD, said: “A recent systemwide fare study and equity analysis was conducted to create a fare structure that is more equitable, affordable and simple. Our work with Masabi over the last seven years helps ensure that our customers can access the best fares. We are excited to continue our partnership and introducing future innovations to streamline and enhance the RTD customer experience.”
Brian Zanghi, CEO at Masabi, said: “Our work with RTD has made Denver a global case study of the speed, scale and cost savings from the industry’s growing shift away from bespoke systems to the Fare Payments-as-a-Service model, where multiple agencies can use the same shared platform. This approach allowed RTD to launch an Account-Based solution like MyRide in just 11 months and at half the cost of a bespoke alternative, saving tens of millions of dollars that can be invested in new services and solutions to improve rider experiences. We’re delighted to be continuing our work with RTD and are excited to continue innovating and evolving together.”