Massachusetts Department of Transportation offered transit customers an easy and convenient way to purchase tickets for their rides with a new smartphone application.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority needed to find a cost-effective way to improve and expand its Automated Fare Collection system beyond its core subway and bus network. MBTA partnered with Masabi, a transit mobile ticketing pioneer, to launch a full roll-out of a smartphone ticketing system called JustRide to serve all commuter rail lines and commuter ferries. The technology meant the MBTA could reduce lines at transit ticket offices or machines, saving time and reducing frustration for riders. Through the Customer App, users are able to purchase mobile tickets anywhere, anytime in seconds. Repeat users are regularly able to make purchases in as little as 15 seconds as the application intelligently remembers previous trip selections and securely stores payment details.
The MBTA was able to deploy mobile ticketing within just 7 months of signing the contract and the ‘Bring Your Own Infrastructure’ model meant very little to no upfront cost, making use of off-the-shelf multi-purpose devices for validation.
As a measure of success, more than 200,000 tickets have been sold since the application launched in November and currently more than 10 percent of tickets on the system are being sold via mobile. Most importantly, rolling out JustRide has saved the agency approximately $70 million versus an extension of its subway smartcard solution.
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