Visa Expands Contactless Public Transportation Payments Due To Pandemic

Visa, in response to the rising demand for safer ways to travel, has expanded its partnership with Cubic Transportation Systems to offer contactless payments for public transportation services in over 500 cities, according to a press release.

Visa and Cubic have already launched contactless systems in cities around the world, including London, Miami, New York, Sydney and Vancouver.

Now, with the expanded partnership, they intend to reach more people with the contactless systems. A customer taps their contactless card or contactless-enabled mobile phone at the terminal, and then they are ready to ride, the release states.

It’s a change from the old ways in which customers had to wait in line to buy a transit card or touch a payment terminal with their bare hands. And, it’s a way to alleviate some of the pressure on transport operators already working on keeping people safe by disinfecting often and enforcing social distancing efforts, the release states.

Cubic has the ability to quickly implement solutions for contactless pay, according to the release, and can use flexible, scalable transit-compliant processing through payments platform Cybersource, Visa’s global payments management system. Also, the two companies plan to “pursue joint research and development and innovation projects to move the future of urban mobility forward,” the release states.

Visa cites statistics that almost 50 percent of Americans are unsure about public transit right now, believing it could be the gateway to contracting COVID-19. As such, the payments company said public transport operators are likely to be in search of innovative solutions to help people feel a sense of security.

Public transit has readily begun implementing contactless solutions, according to a PYMNTS report. Fernando Souza, vice president at CyberSource, said the pandemic has spurred people and companies to move toward touchless payments very readily.