Uber and mass-transit software developer Masabi Ltd. have struck an agreement that will allow transit tickets and passes to be displayed on Uber’s mobile app. Masabi’s apps and software systems for transit are used in 30-plus metropolitan areas, including on the Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road commuter-rail systems in …
Read More »Chicago Commuter-Rail Agency Will End Online Ticket Sales in Part To Avoid PCI Costs
Metra, the commuter-rail agency in the Chicago area, will cease selling tickets on its Web site in late June, partly to avoid payment card security expenses. Riders, however, will still have a mobile-ticketing option through the Chicago Transit Authority’s Ventra fare system. Metra, which operates 11 transit lines and carries …
Read More »COMMENTARY: Why Kiosks Are Becoming Must-Have Technology in the Retail Space
Kiosks, and the technology that supports them, are hardly new. We’ve been using kiosks to check in at the airport and print out a wedding registry at our local home-goods store for years. But today, kiosks are moving into fast-food restaurants, rental-car stores, drugstores, malls, and everywhere in between. In …
Read More »Boston’s Transit System To Replace Its CharlieCard With Contactless Fare Payments
Less than a month after winning the contract to bring contactless fare payments to New York City’s vast subway and bus system, Cubic Transportation Systems won a $575 million contract from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to replace the CharlieCard, a fixture in Boston, with a modernized fare system centered …
Read More »Gilbarco Announces the First U.S. EMV Chip Card Transaction From a Fuel Pump
The U.S. conversion to EMV chip card payments took a step forward Thursday when fuel-pump maker Gilbarco Veeder-Root announced what it says is the first EMV chip card transaction from a fuel dispenser. The transaction took place at a 49 Fuels gas station in Burlington, N.C., at an undisclosed time. …
Read More »Cloud-Based TouchPass Brings a Subscription Model to Transit Agencies for Fare Payments
The subscription model is coming to payments for transit fares. Delerrok Inc., a transit fare-system provider, launched TouchPass this week, a fare-collection service that transit operators pay for via a subscription. TouchPass, a product of transit veterans Bob Hamilton, Gary Yamamura, and Susumu Kusakabe, who is a patent holder for …
Read More »Eye on ATMs & Kiosks: Making the Card-Before-Cash Switch; Kiosks at McDonald’s
As the U.S. payments industry continues its massive migration to EMV, issues here and there, such as payment cards being left behind in ATMs, pop up. About six months after INTRUST Bank completed its ATM EMV conversion a year ago, the problem of unrecovered cards started, says Joe Morin, ATM …
Read More »Coinstar and Redbox Parent Firm Outerwall Looking at Strategic Alternatives
Its original Coinstar coin-counting business long overshadowed by its once-booming but now fading Redbox DVD and video-game rental business, Outerwall Inc. on Monday announced that it had hired investment banker Morgan Stanley & Co. “to explore strategic and financial alternatives” for Outerwall shareholders. The company simultaneously announced that would double …
Read More »Cardtronics To Lose Its Biggest Customer as 7-Eleven Shifts ATM Operations to Affiliate
By Jim Daly Retail ATM network owner and manager Cardtronics Inc. reported Tuesday morning that its biggest merchant customer, Dallas-based 7-Eleven Inc., picked a corporate affiliate to run its U.S. ATM fleet when the leading convenience-store chain’s 10-year placement contract with Cardtronics expires in July 2017. 7-Eleven accounted for 17.5% …
Read More »Walgreens Adds Western Union Money-Transfer Services to More Than 7,650 Stores
Finding a kiosk to make money transfers via Western Union Co. has become easier if there is a Walgreens or Duane Reade store nearby. Western Union and Walgreens announced this week a deal that makes Western Union money transfers available at the existing photo kiosks inside more than 7,650 Walgreens …
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