Tap, hop on and ride Portland-Vancouver transit

Working with TriMet, C-TRAN and Portland Streetcar, INIT has initiated the final, open-payments component of the Hop Fastpass™ e-fare system within the Portland-Vancouver Metropolitan Area.

Regional riders can now pay for fares using a mobile wallet such as AndroidPay, ApplePay or SamsungPay, as well as any contactless bank card. “They simply tap their phone on any of the 1,200 INIT validators and hop on board the Portland Streetcar, C-TRAN buses including The Vine, TriMet’s buses, MAX light rail and WES Commuter Rail,” INIT said. “Having the ability to pay with a credit card or mobile wallet frees riders from the worry associated with how many, or what kind of, tickets they should buy. They simply tap, hop on and ride. In addition, Hop Fastpass™ cards offer daily and monthly fare capping so riders never have to worry about spending more than needed to take public transit. The plan offers riders greater social equity, and provides more cost-effective transport options for travel throughout the Portland-Vancouver Metropolitan Area.”

INIT’s back-end processing software, MOBILEvario, serves as the core intelligence for the account-based and open-payment fare system. It manages and processes fares in real time, recognizes and processes revenue sharing, and manages accounts and automates reconciliations for all three agencies. Off-line processing is another benefit of the INIT system, the company noted. In the event of a network outage, fare payments can still be processed, ensuring revenues are not lost.

INIT developed the system using open-architecture API’s “so that other partners could be easily incorporated,” INIT said. “As an example, the IVR system and mobile apps were able to easily integrate with the INIT open payments e-fare system. This benefited riders with further tools and greater functionality.” As well, “the system was implemented within budget and on time.”

TriMet and C-TRAN also have a fully integrated operations control and real-time passenger information system from INIT. “The addition of the open payment e-fare component allows these agencies to realize a fully integrated Intelligent Transportation System,” INIT said. “Due to our flexible and modular solution design, the e-fare module was installed within all Portland Streetcars without the need to interface with an operations control system.”

“My vision was to build innovative, open-payments, open-architecture fare collection system for all of our regional riders,” said TriMet Project Manager Chris Tucker. “We now have open payments, real-time fare calculation, daily and monthly fare capping, and seamless travel across three regional transit agencies and two states.”

“INIT has been an amazing partner, said C-TRAN CEO Sean Donaghy. “The integrated approach it took helped us realize the launch of this modern and seamless open-payments solution. What that means for our riders is they can move from the Streetcar to a TriMet bus, over to C-TRAN and all the way throughout the system with ease.”

Click HERE to see a video of INIT’s technology.