Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

The survey of 4,500 urban travelers in nine major cities in Brazil, France, Germany, South Korea, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S. showed that approximately 90% of people in these cities use public transportation on a regular basis and they are willing to pay more for technology improvements.

The agency is rolling out the GPS-based system across the remaining three boroughs after last year’s successful launch in Staten Island and the Bronx. Cubic will install the MTA’s Bus Hardware System on approximately 3,800 buses serving Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

In January 2012, NJ Transit became the first transit agency in North America to introduce Bank Note Recycler technology, which allows the machines to dispense change in the form of paper bills — ones, fives, tens and twenties — instead of dollar coins.

New fleet will be completely in place by early January, with each new bus equipped with features that add efficiencies and safety to the shuttle service.

Passengers traveling by bus in London have the option of paying their fare with their contactless debit, credit or charge card by simply presenting it to one of the card readers on the bus.

A new partnership between CBORD, a provider of campus card and integrated security solutions to colleges and universities, and Creative Mobile Technologies, a supplier of in-taxi media and payment technologies, allows Emerson College and Suffolk University students to pay for taxi rides using campus card funds.

The Clipper Card fare payment system will be used once the Warm Springs Extension opens in 2015.

During the meeting, agencies discussed strategies for accepting open bank card payments for public transportation; challenges and opportunities for commuter rail; best practices for transit business and technical architectures; financial industry technologies and directions that affect fare collection; and the impact of new fare collection systems on fare policy.

She feared losing the agency's retiree healthcare benefits if she was terminated. Had two high-profile conflicts with mothers of crying children in the past year, and received 115 complaints since 2009.

The agency is looking into an incident involving a bus driver forcing a mother and her four children off a bus one night earlier this month. The incident started as a dispute over an expired fare.