New York mass-transit riders no longer will need a crystal ball to know how far their bus is from their stop under a service from VeriFone Systems Inc. that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to launch in Staten Island later this year and eventually throughout the city.
“Today, our transit system is quickly catching up with our 21st century expectation that real-time information is available on the go for all New Yorkers,” Jay H. Walder, authority chairman, said in a July 28 transit authority press release.
VeriFone’s TransitPay system, rebranded by the city as Bus Time, uses Global Positioning System technology to keep tabs on trains and buses. Riders can check the locations on the authority’s website or by sending a text-message query and receiving a text-message response, an authority spokesperson tells PaymentsSource. Prominent signs at stops provide riders with the text-messaging code, he says.
Application developers also may access the bus-location information to create apps for smartphones and tablet computers, VeriFone said in its own July 29 news release.
The clairvoyance is coming as part of a four-year, $6.9 million VeriFone contract for delivery, installation, warranty and maintenance of 1,000 TransitPay systems, according to VeriFone.
The deal also provides the authority with on-bus hardware, software development and project-management services, VeriFone said in its release. Besides providing the immediate tracking, the TransitPay equipment eventually will support contactless fare payments on an open-standards platform for smartphones and smart cards, according to the release.
The authority plans to finish installing a contactless smart card payment system by 2015, the authority’s release said.
VeriFone intends to begin shipping the equipment next month, start installing it in October and complete the job on every Staten Island bus by the end of the year, the release said. The authority spokesperson confirmed the agency wants to expand the technology citywide but could not provide a timetable for installation in the city’s other four boroughs.
The terminal maker has not used the TransitPay name until now, but the technology has been evolving for several years and is related to established systems, including London’s Oyster transit and charge card, a VeriFone spokesperson says.
Under the Bus Time name, the technology already is in service on the B63 bus route in Brooklyn, the authority’s release said.
The authority’s Wader expressed high hopes for the system as it spreads citywide. It “means knowing your bus is on time before you leave home, getting updates on delays while you’re out and about, and unlocking opportunities for better service across our entire network,” Wader said.
