At Mobile World Congress, MasterCard announced a global partnership with Cubic Transportation Systems, a provider of smart city solutions across North America, Europe, Middle East and Asia-Pacific. The alliance is designed to help the millions of daily commuters around the world experience faster, more convenient and personalized ways to get around, tapping into the power of their mobile devices.

With more than one-half of the world’s population already living in cities, many transportation systems have reached capacity. Transportation authorities are looking for ways to better manage existing demand and create investments in new infrastructure. The penetration of smart devices is opening up new opportunities for service operators to connect with transportation users before, during and after a journey — and in turn provide a more tailored and efficient experience.

By combining MasterCard’s leadership in everyday payments and loyalty management with Cubic’s “NextCity” platform the partners aim to develop solutions that:

• Provide individual travelers with real-time guidance on their mobile devices on the smartest way to travel, offering fare incentives if the system becomes congested or overcrowded.

• Enable transportation operators to offer flexible pricing based on system demand.

• Offer retailers at and around transportation hubs ways to alert travelers to personalized offers and rewards on the go.

As part of the agreement, MasterPass, MasterCard’s secure digital payment service, will be integrated with Cubic’s NextWave ticketing and journey planning app.

The partnership will help accelerate the conversion of the currently $200 billion cash payments into digital payments, saving operators cost for cash-handling and speeding up through-put. By introducing globally interoperable payment solutions for urban transportation systems, traveling between cities will become much easier, with no need to carry multiple tickets.