With Transport for London’s recent announcement confirming it would be the first big transit authority to accept bank cards for bus and metro fares, momentum continues to build for other large transit authorities to go to open-loop payment.
Some of the largest such transit agencies in the United States are already on track for such a move, such as those in New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. All have issued tender documents.
But unlike London and many other big cities in Europe, where most passengers have bank accounts, most U.S. agencies face a problem of what to do with the large number of riders living on the fringes of the nation’s banking and credit systems.
