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With its open-network electronic fare collection system now in place, the Utah Transit Authority is exploring additional payment options and branding opportunities to enhance the program. Last month, the authority launched a system that accepts contactless credit and debit cards such as Visa Inc.'s payWave, MasterCard Worldwide's PayPass and American Express Co.'s ExpressPay. The authority has installed contactless readers in about 600 buses and at light-rail and commuter-rail train stations. On Track Innovations Ltd. and the ERG Group provide the readers. The authority soon will seek business partnerships with banks issuing contactless cards to promote their use in the transit system, Craig Roberts, the authority's manager for technology program development, tells CardLine sister publication ATM&Debit News. The authority also is developing a gift card strategy in which riders may purchase prepaid fare cards at supermarkets that sell closed-loop gift cards. "We think that is a lot better way to get the cards into the hands our customers than to have people get and reload them at transit stations," Roberts says. Two years ago, the authority tested acceptance of open-loop contactless cards on 41 buses serving Wasatch Front ski area. "The pilot served as a hands-on experience of how this works for a whole system." Roberts says. Besides accepting contactless prepaid ski resort picture identification cards for payment, the transit system also accepts payment from contactless prepaid accounts tied to student IDs from Utah Valley University and Westminster College. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is based in Salt Lake City, plans to issue contactless prepaid id cards to church officials that the transit authority will begin to accept in a couple of months, Roberts says.
