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Near Field Communication and all contactless technology

Dallas Area Rapid Transit, or DART, has become the latest transit agency in the U.S. to accept contactless open-loop payments, joining just four other U.S. agencies that support the technology, not counting small open-loop pilots happening in California.

Germany’s largest transit operator, BVG, said its pilot of contactless EMV payments extends to all of its nearly 1,500 buses, and the company has eliminated cash acceptance on board the vehicles, a spokesman confirmed to Mobility Payments. But officials in Berlin have not yet decided whether to make the contactless payments service permanent, he added.

Unlike other major transit agencies in the U.S., which have spent hundreds of millions of dollars replacing or upgrading their fare-collection systems, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority has taken a different approach.

The Go-Ahead Group, one of the big five privately owned public bus operators in the UK, said today it has seen cash usage on board the nearly 3,000 buses it runs in England outside of London fall to 23% of transactions, down from 53% three years ago.

The California Integrated Travel Project, or Cal-ITP, is “on track to have at least several more” open-loop pilots or demonstration projects, a spokeswoman for the program told Mobility Payments.