Commuters in Athens can now purchase and display their bus, electric trolley-bus, metro, tram, and suburban railway tickets on mobile devices, completely eliminating the need for paper tickets.
Commencing in December 2014, a pilot project implemented by transport operator Transport for Athens in partnership with ticketing and fare-collection company Masabi, has seen some of the 1 million transport users of Athens use the JustRide transport system.
Proven successful in Boston and San Diego (USA), and London (United Kingdom), JustRide is a cloud-based, end-to-end mobile ticketing and fare collection system that requires no internet connection. Users can purchase their tickets via an app and validate on the go.
‘Mobile ticketing offers a win-win situation for Athens, combining an excellent user experience for passengers with the added benefit of reducing the costs associated with cash handling,’ said Gregory Dimitriadis, Chair of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Transport for Athens. ‘In deploying Masabi’s technology across all modes of public transport in Athens, we are launching one of the world’s largest mobile ticketing deployments seen to date.’
Transport for Athens expects to reduce costs of handling cash and paper ticket printing, and has indicated the saved funds will be reinvested into infrastructure and services.
Original author: Alexia
