The Smart Card Alliance formed the Transportation Council (TC) to promote the adoption of contactless interoperable smart-card payment systems for transit and other transportation services. The newly formed council, in association with the American Public Transportation Association, will initiate projects to support applications of smart card use. The overall goal of the TC is to help accelerate the deployment of standards-based smart-card payment programs within the transportation industry. Initial council projects will support advancement of transit fare collection systems and explore linkages between transit payment systems and smart-card programs in the tolling, parking and financial industries. The TC also plans to investigate how transportation payment systems and credentialing systems can be linked through the use of multi-application smart-card technology.