GCRTA to Launch EZfare Contactless Fare Payments System

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA), NEORide, the Transit app, and Masabi, announced that GCRTA has become the latest agency to join EZfare, a contactless ticketing solution available in the Transit app. 

Transit with EZfare will replace GCRTA’s existing RTA CLE app and will become its official app for purchasing fare media. Transit with EZfare will begin June 12, 2022. Tickets will also be available in the EZfare app and through Uber or Moovit, allowing customers to purchase fares and travel to their destination with just a few taps of their smartphone.

“The reality of modern transit is that we need to create offerings which reflect our customers’ needs. Regional travel can quickly lose its allure when several tickets and passes across multiple agencies are involved – EZfare solves this, consolidating unnecessary extra steps into one ticket in the Transit app to travel across three states,” said India Birdsong, GM/CEO at GCRTA. “We are thrilled to use technology to improve customer experience and fare equity as we continue our efforts to connect the community.”

GCRTA joins 13 other transit agencies across Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky that already sell their fares on EZfare’s regional fare payment system. The system is powered by Fare Payments-as-a-Service provider, Masabi, with ticketing across the three states, 14 agencies, and multiple apps enabled using Masabi’s Justride SDK.

This new solution includes local agencies adjacent to Cleveland such as Laketran, PARTA, SARTA, METRO, and Medina County Public Transit (MCPT), meaning that riders can use one app to buy tickets and travel across these agencies.

Riders who prefer to use cash will also be able to visit any of the agency’s Customer Service Center at Tower City to add funds to their EZfare or Transit Accounts, which can then be used to buy fare media in the apps when needed. Additionally, GCRTA will install electronic validators on its HealthLine vehicles. Over the next several months, they will continue installing validators on the rest of their bus and train fleets. Electronic validators enable riders to scan their fare from their smartphone device when boarding.

“We created EZfare to make riding transit easier,” said Ben Capelle, NEORide president.  “National transportation options like Uber and Lyft are successful because they use one app, no matter where you go in the country.  As transit systems, we need to aspire to be easy to use.  With GCRTA joining EZfare, you can now ride almost any bus in the state with one app which is very significant for the transit user experience.  We are very excited to have Ohio’s largest transit system now using EZfare.”