Transit Riders in Greater Cleveland can now use Transit with EZfare to pay fares, plan trips and obtain real-time information thanks to a partnership with NEORide, Transit and Masabi

GCRTA has joined EZfare, the fare platform used by 14 transit agencies across the region, and is promoting EZfare mobile payment in the Transit app, GCRTA’s official app. By launching mobile ticketing in the app thousands of GCRTA riders use to get around every day, GCRTA is making it simpler than ever for riders to travel across its entire system and beyond.  

Transit with EZfare replaced GCRTA’s RTA CLE app and is now the agency’s official app for purchasing fare media, real-time trip planning, paying fares, and vehicle tracking. Thanks to this partnership with EZfare, GCRTA riders also get a free subscription to Transit Royale, which offers additional app features that make riding GCRTA easier and more appealing. Fare media is also available in the EZfare app, as well as through ridesharing apps Uber and Moovit, allowing customers to purchase fares anytime, anywhere, in whichever app they prefer, while traveling seamlessly with just a few taps of their mobile device.  Riders will be able to purchase and use fare media such as single ride, all-day, seven-day or monthly passes and reduced fares directly from their mobile device.

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) hosted a kick-off event in Cleveland’s Public Square to promote the launch of their new mobile ticketing solution. Hear what EZfare agencies say about EZfare, Masabi and the Justride platform:

GCRTA’s launching of Transit with EZfare now delivers enhanced regional connectivity and ease of use for Cuyahoga County and Northeast Ohio riders. GCRTA riders can now purchase fare media for adjacent systems such as Laketran, PARTA, SARTA, METRO and Medina County Public Transit (MCPT) in the same app. In total, riders can use the services of 13 other transit agencies across Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky. The new system is powered by Fare Payments-as-a-Service provider Masabi, and has been enabled using Masabi’s Justride platform, in collaboration with NEORide (a tri-state council of governments, comprising 19 transit systems from across all three states dedicated to the development and promotion of regional public transportation services).

With their Transit account, GCRTA riders can use a single app to also pay their fare in Columbus, Dayton, and more than 65 cities across the United States and Canada, as well as access bikeshare and other integrated services.  

GCRTA is committed to increasing fare equity by making this service available to all riders including the unbanked and underbanked with a retail distribution network of more than 230 retail locations throughout Northeast Ohio, made possible by InComm Payments’ VanillaDirect. Riders who prefer to use cash can visit one of the many participating retail locations or GCRTA’s Customer Service Center at Tower City to add funds to their EZfare or Transit Account to buy fares. 

To find out the nearest retail location, riders can visit, https://pay.vanilladirect.com/pages/locations

Additionally, GCRTA will be installing electronic validators on its HealthLine vehicles as well as its entire bus and train fleets. Electronic validators will enable riders to simply scan their fare displayed on their mobile device when boarding, simplifying the process and cutting down time on-boarding, making riding public transit in Cleveland, and across Ohio, easier and more convenient.

In the future, GCRTA plans to introduce Account-Based Ticketing, smartcards, and fare capping. Then, no matter how many trips a rider makes throughout a given day or rolling period, they will not pay more than the price of a daily or monthly pass -- prioritizing equity and rewarding passengers the more they travel.

“The reality of modern transit is that we need to create offerings which reflect our customers’ needs. Regional travel can quickly lose its allure when several tickets and passes across multiple agencies are involved – Transit with EZfare solves this, consolidating unnecessary extra steps into one ticket in the Transit app to travel across Northeast Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky,” said GCRTA General Manager and Chief Executive Officer India Birdsong. “We are thrilled to use technology to improve customer experience and fare equity as we continue our efforts to connect the community.”

“The collaboration of GCRTA with Transit App to provide EZfare allows for trip booking and fare payment all in one location,” said GCRTA Board President, Rev. Charles P. Lucas, Pastor Emeritus, St. James AME Church. “For GCRTA riders, it provides a single solution that gives real-time bus and rail information, trip planning and fare payment.” 

“We created EZfare to make riding transit easier for our customers,” said NEORide President Ben Capelle. “National transportation options like Uber and Lyft are successful because they use one app, no matter where you travel in the country. As transit systems, we need to aspire to be easier to use – and that requires collaboration.  GCRTA joining EZfare is very significant for the transit user experience in Northeast Ohio and statewide. We are very excited to have Ohio’s largest transit system now using EZfare.”

“In the space of a few years, EZfare has transformed the idea of what is possible in interconnected, multi-agency, and multi-modal regional transit. It is a testament to the power of Masabi’s cutting edge Fare-Payments-as-a-Service approach, which has provided a quick, safe and cost-efficient route to fare payment modernization and inter-agency co-operation that has been easily and effectively implemented,” said Brian Zanghi, CEO of Masabi. “We’ve been honored to work with GCRTA and Cleveland to launch the latest deployment of this pioneering regional model.”

“By joining EZfare and making fares available in their official app, GCRTA and Transit are making riding in Cleveland even greater,” said David Block-Schachter, Chief Business Office at Transit. “Thanks to our longstanding partnership with EZfare, Masabi, and GCRTA, we’re excited to add another seamless connection for Transit app users in Cleveland, and across the state of Ohio.