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In urban mobility, payment innovation is picking up speed, transforming traditional business models and accelerating a new era of growth. The rise of digital payments isn't just about streamlining transactions, it's about enabling transit operators to optimize revenue, fight fraud, and encourage transit use with a wealth of data insights. Connect to a robust ecosystem of technology and payments leaders to quickly build solutions that can drive growth in urban mobility.
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Case studies, statistics, research and recommendations are provided “AS IS” and intended for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for operational, marketing, legal, technical, tax, financial or other advice. Visa Inc. does not make any warranty or representation as to the completeness or accuracy of the Information within this document, nor assume any liability or responsibility that may result from reliance on such Information. The Information contained herein is not intended as legal advice, and readers are encouraged to seek the advice of a competent legal professional where such advice is required.
TICKETS
How do payments uplift passenger experiences?
First, aim to make transport hassle-free with innovative payment options that deliver convenience, personalization, and operational efficiency.
Ride the contactless momentum
Open-loop systems allow passengers to tap to ride and pay with their contactless EMV® debit or credit card, smartphone, or wearable device. Tapping to ride is a familiar gesture: quick and convenient with low wait times to improve the passenger experience. For visitors, local residents and even occasional riders, contactless payments also help to remove barriers to using public transport. Riders can be confident they’re getting the best possible fare without needing to understand the ticketing system, fare structure, or how to obtain a ticket or closed-loop card.
Thanks to innovative eCommerce capabilities, transit operators can also expand their closed-loop systems to offer diverse top-up methods or innovate with account-based ticketing. Riders can benefit from more digital payment options, like app-based tickets that support different types of fare media, including QR codes. Operators can also offer subscription services through recurring billing, enabling more cost-effective travel without upfront investment that aims to meet riders' expectations of seamlessness.
Tap-to-phone technology not only modernizes transit operations by converting mobile devices into payment terminals, it also enables workers to serve passengers quickly and efficiently at the station or during transport. On-the-go payment processing can be deployed in conjunction with traditional ticketing systems to enhance efficiency and reduce wait times for passengers. On top of that, contactless helps alleviate waiting at ticket machines and offices, so staff can focus on passenger support.
How do payments help fast-track your revenue?
Next, aim to drive acceptance and reduce risk to boost ridership and efficiency while implementing flexible payment options with loyalty in mind.
Embracing diverse payment methods can transform mass transit into a more user-friendly and inclusive service. Options like buy now, pay later (BNPL), in-app payments, or transit card top-ups give passengers added flexibility, so you can minimize lost sales opportunities. Opening payment acceptance to a wider ridership with more payment methods helps make transit accessible to everyone, everywhere so you can build a steady revenue stream.
Tokenization allows transit operators to recognize passengers across journeys and gain a more complete view of rider preferences. Being able to recognize passengers in this way can make loyalty programs and rewards possible, equipping you with new insights to offer incentives that can strengthen rider loyalty, which helps drive increased revenue. For example, an operator could work with a coffee chain that rewards season ticketholders with monthly discounts on their favorite drinks. It’s a win-win.
Transit has one of the highest fraud rates at 1.14%[1]. Criminals have been using AI for years to automate fraud—and you should be using it, too. AI and machine learning can enhance profitability by helping you to optimize the approval of good orders and minimizing unwarranted rejections. Combining this with customizable rule engines, real-time behavior analysis, and account takeover protection can help you increase acceptance rates, lower manual reviews, and boost bottom lines.
How do payments take a new route for growth?
Finally, future-proof your payment infrastructure to keep pace with growth while enabling inclusivity and sustainability for residents and visitors.
Transit operators can prepare for higher transaction volumes by implementing a robust and reliable payment solution capable of handling large amounts of contactless and digital transactions. With a single connection to our open payments platform, transit operators and technology leaders can also benefit from modular services like payment processing, digital/in-person accept, tokenization, fraud management, and more—all in one place. This lets you be prepared as you scale, with the capabilities to accept the payment methods of tomorrow.
Partnerships can significantly aid public transit operators' growth. Collaborating with payment partners who are well-versed in fraud management and PCI DSS compliance can help you design the payments solutions of the future. As operators extend to new routes, services, or regions, digital payments can help scale operations to serve more passengers. For those planning their MaaS vision, digital payments can foster partnerships with other transit operators or service providers for integrated ticketing across different types of transport.
Cities can play a vital part in tackling climate change as mass transit ridership increases. Reducing plastic travel cards and paper tickets cuts costs for operators and reduces their carbon footprint. With digital payments, you can instead focus on the machines, processes, and workers who maintain the systems’ infrastructure.
Digital payment systems in public transit help promote inclusion by simplifying use and enhancing ridership across diverse demographics. They unify transport methods, increase interoperability, and provide efficient travel experiences. To drive inclusivity, integrate prepaid cards into digital systems, promoting participation for under- or unbanked individuals. Digital solutions can also increase accessibility for financially disadvantaged riders or those eligible for subsidized travel, offering options that reward frequent travel.
Question 1
Unlock new eCommerce capabilities
Mobilize workforces to accept fare payments
Drive flexibility to maximize sales opportunities
Incentivize passengers to keep using transit
Elevate fraud management with AI
Question 2
Prepare ahead for increased transaction volumes
Innovate with a robust ecosystem of partners
Arrive at a more sustainable future
Don’t leave passengers behind
Question 3
Now let’s steer the way to innovation...
Leverage new digital innovations for cost efficiency
Optimize transit routes with personalization
Tokenization can help customers discover the best way to reach their destination based on their account details and payment history. Operators can be powered to leverage this insight: from alerting passengers which stations have step-free access to providing route suggestions coupled with payment methods, which could include installments built into digital wallets.
Digital technology can provide significant cost savings for transit operators. Innovations like virtual cards reduce the cost associated with physical closed-loop cards, and tokenization can recognize passengers entitled to a specific fare class, such as senior citizens, while also optimizing fares over the course of a day, week, or month. Digital payments also minimize the time and effort spent handling cash and printing tickets, resulting in more accurate fare payment and fewer refund claims due to pricing errors.
[1] 2023 Visa Merchant Fraud Report, August 2023. Based on insights from 2.7 billion+ global transactions worth $381B from our flagship fraud prevention solution Decision Manager, Visa has compiled our latest findings about fraud trends and AI automation. Transit is referenced as one of the industries with one of the highest fraud rates.
Thinking of his next trip...
Meet Erik! He’s just agreed to join his friends at an upcoming music festival but needs to buy train tickets in advance. Let’s help him prepare!
Erik sets up his in-app account—it’s easy to navigate and he’s surprised to see he can even gain loyalty points. He expects the account to be secure. To make this happen, identify suspicious account activity with strategies like device profiling, geo-location, behavior, and bot detection to help block fraudsters from exploiting customer accounts, loyalty points, or personal information. This can reduce the impact on your customers—and helps save your business costs, hassle, reputational damage, and customer attrition.
Assessing an account
Erik has chosen the date and time for his travel, and now he’s ready to book! He wants choice and flexibility and will be frustrated if the app doesn’t accept his preferred payment methods… To make this happen, implement a payment solution that makes it quick and easy to add new and emerging payment methods. This way, you help increase conversions and reduce the costs and time associated with accepting multiple payment methods. And it lets your customers pay how they want.
Plan and book travel
Solution: Account Takeover Protection ➜
Making the booking
Authenticating
Payment
He decides to pay by card but feels daunted after being prompted to verify more details. Luckily, the process is smooth, and he appreciates that this is to help keep the payment secure. To make this happen, make 3DS authentication part of your end-to-end fraud management solution. You’ll be able to help issuers determine if a transaction fits the buying patterns of a specific cardholder and identify risky or fraudulent transactions earlier in the transaction process, leading to fewer chargebacks, higher authorization rates, and a more secure experience for customers.
Solution: Payer Authentication ➜
Ticket booked—he’s ready! Afterwards, Erik decides to purchase an annual ticket with recurring payments. Now he’s prepared for many more journeys to see his friends. To make this happen, deploy recurring billing to streamline subscription payments, securely store payment details, and automatically keep details up to date. You can drive long-term revenues, predict future cash flow, and keep customers happy with smooth-running subscription services.
Solution: Recurring Billing ➜
Planning a fun day out...
Meet Helene! She moved away a while ago but loves to plan trips back to her hometown so she can spend time with family. Let’s keep her connected!
Logging into her account
Knowing that her train leaves today, she logs into her account early to ensure her registered card details are up to date before paying at the station. She’s entitled to a discount as a senior citizen. To make this happen, consider a tokenization solution that can store customer credentials with lifecycle management to help keep card details up to date and support fare management. You’ll be able to recognize passengers entitled to a specific fare class like Helene across open-loop or closed-loop transit systems.
It’s chaotic and busy when she arrives at the station, and some of the self-service ticket machines are out of order. Luckily, an attendant tells her she can simply tap to pay at the turnstile and tap out as she disembarks. To make this happen, ensure your payment solution integrates with contactless-enabled terminals and other devices to deliver the convenience passengers expect. This way you can extend your in-person acceptance capabilities to enable smooth access to public transportation.
Solution: Card Present Connect ➜
At the station
Logging in
Exploring the big city…
Meet Ricardo! He loves to travel to new cities and depends heavily on public transport to see all the sights. Let’s get him around!
New city, new station
Ricardo has just landed at a new airport and is eager to get to his hotel. Unfamiliar with the local language and transit system, he sees a city bus that can accept his contactless card so he can simply tap to ride. To make this happen, adopt a payment solution that supports Mobility & Transport Transactions. You’ll be able to create seamless payment experiences and keep transit running smoothly for passengers like Ricardo.
Access an account
Plan & book travel
Enter transit network
Intermodal travel
Later, Ricardo needs to take a connecting train, which he quickly decides to board as he’s unsure when the next one comes. A fare inspector passes by, and now’s his chance to pay. To make this happen, consider transforming your existing mobile technology into payment acceptance tools with the right software integration. This lets inspectors validate fares and easily accept payments—either at the station or during transit—reducing the need for multiple devices and speeding up time spent with each passenger.
An unexpected delay
In an unfortunate turn of events, Ricardo’s train comes to a halt due to a technical failure, which means a 30-minute delay! Now stuck with other passengers on the platform, Ricardo is offered compensation for the inconvenience. To make this happen, take advantage of a payments solution with payout capabilities that can deliver compensation swiftly to a customer’s preferred card or account. This will eliminate time and effort from the compensation process and boost passenger satisfaction3.
Solution: Payouts ➜
After the busy commute home…
Meet Aya! As a local resident, she travels daily into the city for work. Let’s keep her commute stress-free!
Checking her details
As Aya commutes daily for work, she checks her closed-loop card balance to make sure her travel is covered for the week ahead. She’s pleased to see the payment credentials in her account are updated, ready to top-up when needed. To make this happen, consider a payment solution that can identify and update expired, replaced, and invalid cards4 . You’ll be able to secure revenue by reducing unnecessary manual updates and the risk of cancellation while minimizing the challenges of manually updating sensitive payment data.
Solution: Account Updater ➜
Dispute prevention & resolution
A couple of weeks later, Aya notices a transaction from the operator she doesn’t recognize. She calls her bank to dispute the transaction. The operator is notified of the pre-dispute and can resolve it quickly. To make this happen, implement post-purchase solutions to quickly resolve disputes. Issuers can send dispute notifications for immediate refund—or facilitate automated resolution—to help prevent potential chargebacks, friendly fraud, and disputes.
Solution: Token Management Service ➜
Rewarded for loyalty
Aya finds out that, as an active transit user, the operator is rewarding her with discounts at her favorite coffee shop. Every little thing helps to make her commute more enjoyable each day. To make this happen, consider a tokenization service that links payment tokens with loyalty information so that passengers can be recognized each time they buy. You can drive long-term loyalty and encourage repeat purchasing by rewarding passengers.
Solution: Verifi ➜
Now let's look at some successful transit collaborations...
Solution: Decision Manager ➜
* Use cases are for illustrative purposes only. Program providers are responsible for their programs and compliance with any applicable laws and regulations. [2] EMV® is a registered trademark in the U.S. and other countries and an unregistered trademark elsewhere. The EMV trademark is owned by EMVCo, LLC [3] Actual fund availability depends on receiving financial institution and region. Availability varies by market. Please refer to your representative for more information on availability. [4] The card issuer must be enrolled in the Visa Account Updater program or the Mastercard Automatic Billing Updater program or the American Express Cardrefreshers™ Program.
Solution: Payment Methods ➜
Security & compliance
On board
As Helene taps her card, the 16-digit card number is converted into a single-use token without exposing her sensitive details, so the operator keeps the transaction secure. Helene’s discount is still applied and the right fare is charged at the end of the day. To make this happen, consider a solution that can tokenize EMV®2 card numbers and transmit them, along with the transaction data, to PCI DSS-compliant storage for deferred authorization at the end of the day. This way transit operators can allow seamless access to transit while maintaining both security and compliance.
Solution: Tap Token
While on board the train, Helene is happy to see a variety of drinks and snacks for sale—and the attendant is accepting payments on a terminal. She expects the experience to be seamless. To make this happen, consider a payment solution that integrates with contactless-enabled terminals and other devices to deliver the convenience travellers expect. This can help operators drive ancillary sales with smooth, enjoyable transit experiences.
Solution: Tap to Phone
Onboard
Optimized service
PRE-TRAVEL
DURING TRAVEL
POST-TRAVEL
Solution: In-person Accept ➜
Solution: Visa Platform Connect ➜
Together we can unlock new innovations and revenue opportunities with payments. Our industry experts can help you optimize your payments acceptance strategy as part of your digital transformation and growth.
Running smoothly with contactless One of world’s most visited cities, Bangkok, welcomes approximately 22 million overnight visitors a year. To make it easy for visitors as well as its residents to move around the city, Bangkok has upgraded its public transport system. Most recently, it introduced open-loop tap to ride as an alternative to single-use tokens and closed-loop cards on its Blue and Purple metro lines. Our payment platform processes the transactions for Bangkok Metro, which developed transit rules with local card schemes and onboarded them alongside global schemes. Our secure, flexible Token Management Service also enables the ability to store sensitive data within the open-loop transit system.
Results
Growing ridership: Eleven months after launch, Visa data showed that 360,000 riders per month on Bangkok’s Blue and Purple lines were paying via tap to ride—a number growing steadily month-by-month at 8%. Promoting innovation: This collaboration marked an industry-first use of tap token technology. Better experiences: The transit system utilized modern payments infrastructure to improve the passenger experience.
Working with Visa Acceptance Solutions, who understand the challenges of mass transit ticketing and payment acceptance, enabled us to roll out the next generation of urban mobility payments in a way that’s flexible, scalable, and secure. The solution meets riders’ expectations while helping protect our reputation and revenues."
"
Somprasong Suttayamully, PhD, Director of Fare Media Department, Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand
MRTA
Metro de Lisboa
AMT Genoa
Modernizing the Lisbon Metro Metropolitano de Lisboa carries more than 173 million passengers around the Portuguese capital on its metro system every year. But an outdated ticketing system was creating friction, with passengers often having to purchase a physical ticket ahead of every trip. With the help of our Card Present Connect technology, the city introduced a seamless contactless payment solution. Passengers can tap their card, smartphone, or smartwatch at the station gate to pay for their trip. As well as being more convenient, the smarter system is also helping passengers save money by automatically charging the most economical fare for their journey.
Innovative offerings: Metropolitano de Lisboa became the first operator in Portugal to enable contactless payments, now at 56 stations and 750 gates. Faster, more secure travel: Passengers now have modern, convenient, and money-saving payment options for every journey. A more sustainable future: Seamless payments encourage more residents and visitors to choose this environmentally friendly travel option.
Vitor Domingues dos Santos, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Metro de Lisboa
With this new functionality, Metropolitano de Lisboa is contributing to the improvement of mobility in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area and to decarbonization and environmental sustainability."
Monterey-Salinas Transit
Traveling further by going beyond cash Monterey–Salinas Transit (MST) is a public transit operator in Monterey County, California with services that extend as far south as Paso Robles and Big Sur and as far north as Watsonville. MST partnered with Cal-ITP (Caltrans’ California Integrated Travel Project) and Visa to implement contactless fare payment technology across their bus fleet. This allows passengers to use a contactless credit, debit, prepaid card, or mobile device to pay their fare. Caltrans, in collaboration with Visa, is working with Cybersource, Littlepay, and Elavon to provide access to state-of-the-art ticketing and payment technology. Our suite of payment and fraud management tools and our network of partners and acquirers was critical to the project. Our payment gateway provided the integral connection between MST and its partners to facilitate a quick and easy implementation and launch.
Innovative solutions: MST became one of the first transit authorities to offer contactless payment in California. Less waiting, more riding: With contactless payments, passengers can pay for their fare quickly and easily using the bank card or smartphone they carry everywhere. Easy and secure: Riders can simply tap their contactless credit, debit, prepaid card or digital wallet as they board MST buses for a simple, secure way to pay.
Carl Sedoryk, General Manager & CEO, Monterey-Salinas Transit.
We are committed to serving all our riders and delivering new methods of ease and convenience. The availability of a contactless fare payment system means increased flexibility, and we are thrilled to be collaborating with Visa to bring the enhanced convenience and safety benefits of tap to pay to our community."
So, what's next?
This content includes references to offerings from Cybersource and Authorize.net, which are part of the Visa Acceptance Solutions family of brands. Results may vary and are not claimed to represent typical results, experience, and are not intended to represent or guarantee that anyone will achieve the same or similar results.
Genoa and Portofino improve urban mobility Azienda Mobilità e Trasporti (AMT) manages public transport in Genoa, Italy. The city wanted to bring smart technology to public transport, with the aim of improving the travel experience for locals and tourists alike. This is a new urban mobility pilot project by AMT and Visa, created in collaboration with Cybersource, Conduent Transportation, and Elavon. It allows citizens and visitors to access Genoa’s public transport with a simple tap, using contactless technology.
Better experiences: Enabling multi-passenger fare capping for the first time in Italy. Quick and easy payments: Passengers can use debit, credit, prepaid, or contactless cards from Visa and other enabled operators to purchase tickets and access the AMT network. More enjoyable travel: Better travel experiences for residents and tourists, who can now easily explore the city using AMT-managed public transport.
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AMT
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