The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) hosted a kick-off event in Cleveland’s Public Square to promote the launch of their new mobile ticketing solution.

GCRTA has joined EZfare, the fare platform used by 14 transit agencies across the region, and is promoting EZfare mobile payment in the Transit app, GCRTA’s official app.

Transit with EZfare replaced GCRTA’s RTA CLE app and is now the agency’s official app for purchasing fare media, real-time trip planning, paying fares, and vehicle tracking. Thanks to this partnership with EZfare, GCRTA riders also get a free subscription to Transit Royale, which offers additional app features. Fare media is also available in the EZfare app, as well as through ridesharing apps Uber and Moovit, allowing customers to purchase fares in whichever app they prefer. Riders will be able to purchase and use fare media such as single ride, all-day, seven day or monthly passes, and reduced fares from their mobile device.

“We created EZfare to make riding transit easier for our customers,” said Ben Capelle, NEORide president. “National transportation options like Uber and Lyft are successful because they use one app, no matter where you travel in the country. As transit systems, we need to aspire to be easier to use – and that requires collaboration.  GCRTA joining EZfare is very significant for the transit user experience in Northeast Ohio and statewide. We are very excited to have Ohio’s largest transit system now using EZfare.”

GCRTA’s launching of Transit with EZfare now delivers enhanced regional connectivity for Cuyahoga County and Northeast Ohio riders. GCRTA riders can now purchase fare media for adjacent systems such as Laketran, PARTA, SARTA, METRO, and Medina County Public Transit (MCPT) in the same app. In total, riders can use the services of 13 other transit agencies across Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky. The new system is powered by Fare Payments-as-a-Service provider Masabi, and has been enabled using Masabi’s Justride platform, in collaboration with NEORide.

With its Transit account, GCRTA riders can use a single app to also pay their fare in Columbus, Dayton, and more than 65 cities across the U.S. and Canada, as well as access bikeshare and other integrated services. 

GCRTA said it is committed to increasing fare equity by making this service available to all riders including the unbanked and underbanked with a retail distribution network of more than 230 retail locations throughout Northeast Ohio, made possible by InComm Payments’ VanillaDirect. Riders who prefer to use cash can visit one of the many participating retail locations or GCRTA’s Customer Service Center at Tower City to add funds to their EZfare or Transit Account to buy fares.

In the future, GCRTA said it plans to introduce Account-Based Ticketing, smartcards, and fare capping.

“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 – Transit with EZfare solves this, consolidating unnecessary extra steps into one ticket in the Transit app to travel across Northeast Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky,” said India Birdsong, GCRTA GM/CEO. “We are thrilled to use technology to improve customer experience and fare equity as we continue our efforts to connect the community.”