NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – A planned US$461 million contract to upgrade and operate the Clipper fare-collection system in the San Francisco Bay Area will include account-based ticketing and a mobile app that will enable customers to tap for rides with a closed-loop virtual Clipper card on NFC-enabled smartphones.
But the fare payments revamp will not include support for payments from contactless bank cards or card credentials on NFC phones. While such open-loop payments are designated as an option for later, Bay Area transit agencies and operators in their procurement documents are downplaying the idea in favor of keeping closed-loop Clipper as the dominant means that riders will use to pay for rides on trains, buses and ferries.
That decision generally runs counter to a trend among major transit agencies that are upgrading their fare payments systems, including those in North America, where New York and Boston have let contracts within the past year for next-generation fare systems that include open-loop, also known as “open” payments. In addition, authorities in Chicago, Vancouver and Portland, Ore., have already launched open-loop payments, with Philadelphia and Miami also planning to add the service to their upgraded fare-collection systems.
