Cashless payment just the ticket for global public transit, Visa says

Visa has announced plans to take a sizable bite out of cash with Visa Global Transit Solutions, a new program designed to accelerate the use of debit, credit and prepaid accounts at the turnstile or on the bus

According to a press release, the program expands on Visa's experience implementing a cashless transit system in recent years with Transport for London.

«We are applying the expertise which has led to more than one billion Visa contactless journeys on TfL to help mass transit operators around the world move away from cash and tickets to contactless payments on buses and train,» Michael Lemberger, head of products for Visa Europe, said in the release.

Visa said the new program will helps mass transit operators and technology providers add contactless as a fare option at the gate. The global program consists of:

• Consulting – a central group in London and regional specialists around the world will support contactless payments implementations.
• Frameworks – a back-office framework manages contactless payments regardless of a transit operator's size or fare structure.
• Tools and standards – the company will expand its Visa Ready program to include payment technologies available to mass transit operators.
• Future of Transportation – the company's Innovation Center in London will engage with transit operators, technology enablers, fintechs and others in the co-creation of «new travel experiences.»

Visa said that its recent Cashless Cities study found that transit agencies spend an average of 14.5 cents of every physical dollar collected to maintain cash-based systems compared with 4.2 cents spent for digital systems.

Source: ATM Marketplace