ERG selected to supply one of first contactless credit card transit payment solution in U.S.
17 April, 2006
category: Contactless, Financial, Transit
The Utah Transit Authority has tapped the ERG Group to supply it a contactless credit card for use in 41 buses in Salt Lake City area ski resorts. The buses will be linked via wifeless LAN to a central clearing house. On-Track Innovations’ Visa-certified equipment will read the new contactless credit cards.
Balcatta, Western Australia–The ERG Group, a world leader in smart card automated fare collection solutions, announced today it has been selected by Utah Transit Authority (UTA) to supply the United States’ first ever contactless credit card bus payment solution.
Forty-one buses serving Salt Lake City area ski resorts will be equipped with the new system, which, in addition to the payment choice of contactless credit cards, will allow customers to use smart cards for both transit payment and ski resort access.
“Acceptance of Contactless Credit Cards at the farebox will bring a whole new level of convenience to our passengers” commented John Inglish, UTA General Manager. “By combining this leading-edge technology with the ERG-provided dual transit ski smart card pass, the system becomes more efficient for all customers, drivers and our administrative staff.”
The fleet of buses will be linked via wireless LAN to a central clearing and processing computer system capable of processing the financial transactions and providing important operational reports. ERG’s System 5000 software will power the back-end processing.
Development and deployment of the system will be a collaborative effort between ERG and UTA, with integration of UTA’s existing on-board equipment and ERG’s software and hardware. According to Clair Fiet, UTA Chief Technology Officer, “This cooperative approach to the system deployment will allow our staff to become familiar with micropayment and smart card technology and to make configuration changes ourselves as needed. We felt ERG had the experience and attitude to make this happen.”
ERG will bring in On-Track Innovations (OTI) Visa-certified equipment to read the contactless credit cards.
“ERG’s technology and ability to integrate our systems with legacy systems has always been valuable to our customers,” stated Michael Donnelly, Global Head of Small Systems for ERG. “We’re extremely pleased to be providing this ground breaking system for UTA and to be working in partnership with them to develop best practices in the delivery of an electronic fare payment system.”
About the ERG Group
The ERG Group is a world leader in the development and supply of integrated fare management and software systems for the transit industry, and for its smart card systems and services. The Group has installed systems in major cities throughout the world including Hong Kong, Melbourne, Rome, San Francisco and Singapore with installations in progress in Gothenburg, Oslo, Seattle, Stockholm, Sydney and Washington DC. ERG has delivered systems that support more than 20 million smart cards in circulation and handle approximately 5 billion transactions per annum. ERG is an Australian-based company, listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and employs approximately 1,000 people in 14 offices in 10 countries.