Masabi added new contactless EMV ticketing capabilities to its Justride fare collection platform. Passengers will now be able to tap their contactless bank cards to travel, removing the hassle of having to purchase a ticket or carry cash.

The city of Bilbao, Spain will be the launch operator initially piloting on its urban bus service, Bilbobus, and working in conjunction with Masabi’s Spanish partner Gertek. The new component of Masabi’s Justride Platform makes using contactless payment cards to tap to travel available to authorities and operators of all sizes around the globe. Due to Masabi’s Software-as-a-Service (Saas) approach to fare collection, this can be enabled efficiently with the cloud-based system, reducing the cost of running and maintaining expensive IT infrastructure.

The system can also be configured to meet a customer’s specific fare and policy requirements, including rules such as entitlements, fare capping, and best fare finding.

The new system includes an account-based back office with a dedicated management suite enabling Bilbobus staff to perform a variety of customer service and administrative tasks. The Bilbao deployment will use contactless EMV validation devices across busses used in the pilot, providing Bilbobus with rich data insights as well as helping reduce dwell times, improving journey times for all.

The Justride platform is already in use with over 40 transport authorities and operators around the globe including in major cities such as New York, London, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Boston, Sydney, and for Lurraldebus in Spain.