Regional Rail Onboard Electronic Payment Project Due February 2010

Regional Rail Onboard Electronic Payment Project

According to the most recent publication of Transit Research Industry and News Update by the Federal Transit Administration, there is an FTA report on the way that documents the results of a joint effort between Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) and Temple University to test the feasibility of conducting electronic fare payment on commuter rail service using a system of hand-held devices that communicate with contactless smart cards. The objective was to develop a non-proprietary, plug-and-play multimodal transport payment portable solution for commuter rail service.

The project relied upon open source software and commercial off-the-shelf equipment to capture fare payment transactions, store the information, and download the information to a central database. The system has been demonstrated with effective applicability, usability and durability for today’s transit systems. This report will be of interest to transit operators and planners responsible for fare payment and collection. Available February 2010 online at: http://www.fta.dot.gov/assistance/research/research_8850.html.