Magazine serving the bus and rail transit & motorcoach operations since 1904
Issue link: https://metromag.epubxp.com/i/131307
TRANSIT APPS NJ Transit is piloting MyTix, a mobile ticketing app, on one of its rail lines. Photo courtesy NJ Transit MOBILE TICKETING Buying and using fares has also gotten easier with apps — some new and others in the works — from a handful of transit systems. MBTA's mobile ticketing platform for commuter rail riders, mTicket, created with transit mobile ticketing supplier Masabi, lets customers buy and display rail tickets and passes using the MBTA mTicket app for iPhone and Android, and soon, BlackBerry devices. Te tickets are displayed on the phone's screen as an encrypted barcode and as a humanreadable ticket. Te app is available in the Apple App Store for iOS devices and the Google Play Store for Android devices. Customers are able to purchase passes from their phones for both the commuter rail and ferry service anytime, anywhere. Tey also are able to use their passes from their phones, eliminating a signifcant amount of waste from paper ticketing. By the beginning of this year, the app reached $1 million in sales. It was introduced system-wide in November 2012. Almost 50,000 unique transactions have taken place and that number is expected to grow as adoption increases and customers utilize the convenience of the mTicket for their daily commutes or weekend excursions. New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit) also recently introduced a mobile ticketing pilot program to Pascack Valley Rail Line customers traveling between Penn Station New York and the Meadowlands Rail Station for special events, letting them use their smartphones to purchase one-way tickets and monthly passes at any time. Te app, MyTix, allows customers to purchase one-way tickets and monthly passes securely on their mobile devices. MyTix became available in April for free download on any Web-enabled iOS or Android operating system, via the App Store and the Google Play Store. Te app was designed with input from customer focus groups, as well as NJ Transit rail employees and customer service staf. NJ Transit is offering the mobile ticketing option as a pilot program to test its functionality and determine the feasibility of expanding it to include other rail lines. Additionally, Portland, Ore.-based TriMet is set to begin testing its new TriMet Tickets mobile ticketing app. Te app will allow riders to conveniently buy and use fares from their smartphones. More than 1,500 people applied to beta test the app. Te test was designed by local software company GlobeSherpa. Bus, MAX and WES commuter rail riders, using an iPhone or Android phone, can download the free app, register a debit or credit card in the secure system, and purchase tickets and passes instantly. Te tickets will have a combination of visually authenticated elements, including a day-code, time and date stamp, and dynamic animation to provide security. WITH TRANSIT APPS, RIDERS GO SHOPPING Rail riders in some U.S. cities gained the advantage of being able to save time and take care of the grocery shopping during their commutes. Transportation media sales company Titan, online grocery store company Peapod.com and transit agencies — including Philadelphia's Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Chicago Transit Authority and MBTA — have partnered to use ad space to more closely engage riders and their everpresent smartphones and tablets during their commute as well as help increase ad revenue. Peapod launched more than 100 sites at commuter rail stations in Boston, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. The virtual store technology features billboards with grocery "aisles" on the train platforms. Commuters with iPhones, iPads, or Android phones scan a QR code on the billboards to download a free 42 < mETRO mAGAZINE JUNE 2013 PeapodMobile app and shop by scanning bar codes of the products displayed in the aisles. Commuters can make selections from Peapod's online store after registering on its website and schedule home deliveries for next day, or days or weeks in advance, during their train rides. Once on the PeapodMobile app, customers have access to more than 11,000 popular and store-brand products. Peapod partnered with national consumer products brands, including Barilla, Coca-Cola, Kimberly Clark, and Proctor & Gamble for the project. metro-magazine.com