GetMeThere App won’t open! #Manchester #Metrolink

GetMeThere App won’t open!

Got 4.3 Stars Ratings on IOS App Store

However, it does not show the total number of reviews.

Got only 1.7 Stars Rating on Android

It has 2,000 plus reviews to show that the App has problems connecting to the server.

Similar Problems reported on various forums

Have never had any problems before but this weekend it started refusing to open, not sure if its a problem with my phone (although it’s pretty new so shouldn’t be) Luckily the inspectors let me show my proof of purchase email instead.

Reddit

Possible Caused of the Problem

Getmethere App requires a server connection to obtain a ticket. When the server is busy or the Internet bandwidth is on high demand during peak hours when passengers go to work in the morning, the user may experience different problems such as with content is not loading or unable to open up the App.

More Andriod users reporting more problems than iPhone users simply because more people use Android phones than expensive iPhones nowadays.

Possibly Resolution

Public transportation for big cities like Manchester with tens of thousands of people using them every day. Speed is the utmost important parameter. The tickets on the Getmethere App should be stored off-line instead of on-line after purchased. The usage of a ticket should be deducted off-line to avoid dependence on the Internet connection and the availability of the server.

Like the Getmethere smart card, the value deduction and the validation are done off-line and therefore, there are not many complaints heard.

Getmethere App should look for mobile technologies which are an off-line based like Google Pay, Apple Pay, or some new technologies. To learn more, please visit mobileafc.net

‎Why Ventra App has 1.5 Stars rating on IOS Store? #Chicago

Why Ventra App rated 1.5* on IOS Store?

Worst app I’ve EVER used.

There was absolutely no thought made into the creation of this horrible app. First tickets are stored on your device, but you still need a connection to their servers to use those tickets. Why!? …

The app also asks for your password EVERYWHERE. …

Ventra App @ IOS Store, shareef777, 01/02/2019

CHICAGO (WLS) — The Ventra app is running again after an outage was reported Monday morning. Ventra is used by the CTA, Metra and by Pace.

Metra said the Ventra App is letting some people use the app, but not purchase tickets on the app.

Ventra said they were experiencing some backend issues with the app and that they apologize for the inconvenience.

Shortly after 10 a.m., Ventra said its app issue has been resolved.

Eyewitness News 7 , July 23, 2019

Possible Caused of the Problem

When you board your train, select “My Metra Tickets” in the Ventra App and tap the ticket you’d like to use. You’ll be prompted to confirm that you want to use your ticket. Then show your mobile ticket to the conductor when the conductor is checking for tickets. He or she will ask you to touch the screen; when you do the colors in the animation change. 

FAQ

Ventra App requires a server connection to obtain a ticket. When the server is busy or the Internet bandwidth is on high demand during peak hours when passengers go to work in the morning, the user may experience different problems particularly with content is not loading…

Possibly Resolution

Public transportation particularly for mega city like Chicago with millions of people using them every day. Speed is the utmost important parameter. The tickets on the Ventra App should be stored off-line instead of on-line after purchased. The usage of a ticket should be deducted off-line to avoid dependence on the Internet connection and the availability of the server.

Like the Ventra smart card, the value deduction and the validation are done off-line and therefore, there have been no major complaints.

Ventra App should look for mobile technologies which are an off-line based like Google Pay, Apple Pay, or some new technologies. To learn more, please visit mobileafc.net

TAP Card should go after the high-profit retail market in Los Angeles.

TAP is one of the largest smart card systems in the United States, with an average of 24 million transactions processed every month, serving 1.3 million passengers daily on a fleet of 2,200 clean air buses and six rail lines.  

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) to expand the network of retail locations at which customers can purchase and reload TAP cards. TAP riders can currently buy and reload TAP cards at more than 450 retail locations across Los Angeles County; it will expand that total to more than 2,000 stores in 2020. Source: PaymentsJournal

As an incentive to install the card readers, a store receives 3.75% of each transaction as commission. Source: Dailynews.

Average credit card processing fees range from 1.5% to 2.9% for swiped credit cards. Source: Creditdonkey.com.

Therefore, a 3.75% transaction fee for top-up is a rip-off.

Potential High-Profit Income from Retail Market

TAP Card with a big user base can be a good cashless payment for convenience stores, fast food restaurants or retail stores. It has a competitive advantage over Visa or Master card that people carry it every day and there is no penalty for late payment.

If TAP Card can be a spin-off, operated independently of LA Metro, it can charge the LA Metro 1.5% transaction fee like a credit card. If the credit card company can make a good profit with 1.5%, so does TAP Card.

The 24 million transactions monthly with an average of $1.75 will give TAP Card monthly income of $63 million.

On top of transportation income, TAP Card can go after the high transaction amount retail market in Los Angeles. Taking a small piece of the pie from Visa and Mastercard will be a big number.

Conclusion

With the big customer base like TAP card and also latest mobile payment technology, TAP card can be easily established itself as the local cashless payment icon in Los Angeles.

Not only it saves the taxpayers’ big money to invest further on new account-based open payment for LA Metro, but it will also bring attractive income to the city of Los Angeles.

Learn more about the latest mobile payment technology for public transit and retail, please visit mobileafc.net

Chicago’s route to a cardless transit payment system, $500m!

Source: Digitday.com

In 2013, it launched the Ventra card, a digital account-based contactless card for subways and buses. Customers could tap a Ventra card to pay for purchases and use it as a debit card.

In November 2015, the city launched the Ventra app, which allowed riders to buy passes or add credit for bus or subway rides, and purchase mobile tickets for commuter rail. Single-fare trips can currently be paid for through mobile wallets such as Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay, and customers may also use contactless credit and debit cards of their own.

While the Ventra card value can be added from within the app, the physical card is still currently needed to access transit. The city is now working on a virtual Ventra card that would operate within an NFC-capable smartphone — a shift that would allow transit riders to tap their phones before getting on trains and buses.

The commuter of the future will hold out a smartphone to get on a train or bus without worrying about losing a transit card or lining up to reload.

You can get the big systems integrators interested in Chicago, but they may not be interested in a smaller city — it wouldn’t be commercially viable for them.

Key Stats of Ventra

as of June 2018

  • Over 1 billion transactions processed on Ventra
  • Over 5 million active Ventra accounts
  • 6.7 million Ventra cards issued  
  • App sales at 22% of all Ventra sales, including Metra
  • $76 million; 3.2 million transactions in Ventra mobile app sales

Conclusion

The Chicago Transit Authority faced a dilemma with its 20-year-old fare payment system. Not only did obsolescence issues make it difficult and costly to maintain. The city is planning to move toward an account-based open payment system in addition to a mobile-based system.

Why the authority wants to invest a large amount of money and to giveaway the profitable and growing fare collection business to Visa, Master Card, Apple Pay,…?

Why not spend the money to develop its own account-based payment, mobile-based payment or to develop the most profitable local vertical market like retail, event ticketing for Chicago city?

The latest mobile technology for automatic fare collection can be the answer for Chicago, to learn more please visit mobileafc.net

Competitive Advantages of Offline over Online system

ON-LineOFF-Line
High implement costLow implement cost
Transaction is slowerTransaction is fast
Need a reliable & low latency networkLess dependent on network
The server requires high performance and
high availability
No need for high performance &
high availability server
7/24 supportno need for 7/24 support
High operating costLow operating cost
Operating cost is directly dependent
on the number of users, and the number
of concurrent transactions.
Operating cost is independent of
the user population and the
number of transactions.

Most AFC system suppliers don’t understand off-line technologies

What they are really supplying is merely a sophisticated and expensive online system with integration of the following features:

  • Terminal devices with network 3G/4G capability
  • Key security with security access module (SAM)
  • Smart Card with high security and durability
  • Fully integrated system with backup facilities
  • Interoperability with different card system
  • High availability server system
  • Sophisticated clearing center
  • Sophisticated reporting

They simply assume that network is always available and terminal devices will always able to send data back to the server.

No system suppliers mention how to handle transaction record lost due to terminal device failure.

Transaction between card and terminal is done in real time, but the transaction record is sent to server in a delay manner.

There is a chance of losing record due to device failure even in a fraction of a second.

iBonus ® AFC system assumes network is NOT always available

Our server manages the sequence of delayed transaction records and can fill the holes.

Our server handles the security of the card by monitoring abnormality.

It is a true off-line based system and is cost effective.

Our systems used by US Army and UN World Food Program survived even in the harsh environment in countries like Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq where network or Internet is not always available.

Los Angeles fare collection upgrade mobile app and account-based

Los Angeles fare collection upgrade mobile app and account-based

LA Metro has been very creative and aggressive. After a couple of years in development, Los Angeles Metro’s new TAP wristbands are now available for transit riders, agency officials announced Monday. A limited number of them, dubbed TAP Flex, are being sold.

Furthermore, a $22m contract to upgrade its automatic fare collection system.

The TAP smart card, used across 25 regional transport agencies in the area, will be upgraded over the next 18 months. In addition to a mobile app, Cubic is to develop a cloud-based account. Branded TAPforce, this would enable no only smart card top-up, but also payment for other services being developed by Metro, such as bicycle sharing and parking.

In the longer term, the aim is to introduce mobile ticketing for NFC-enabled devices.

Conclusion

LA Metro is heading the right way to offer more services for the vertical market rather than investing in account-based ticketing and giveaway the business to Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay,..

Moving to mobile ticketing will give ultimate convenience for the public as there aren’t people with no smartphones today.

Learn more about the latest mobile payment technology for public transit, please visit mobileafc.net

SF Bay Area’s MTC to deliver next-generation fare payment technology and operational services to the Clipper

Source from finextra.com

Clipper currently links 22 regional transit operators and facilitates more than 825,000 journeys per weekday across bus, rail, subway and ferry services, operated by Cubic since 2009

Last year, a $349 million contract promised to deliver a range of new features.

The new system will be rolled out in phases over a five-year period transitioning into a ten-year full operations term commencing in 2022.

Mobile App-based

An integrated mobile app that will enable customers to access real-time information, reload their accounts, plan trips and tap their phones as virtual Clipper cards through fare gates and on buses in much the same way.

The major benefit will be user-friendly and a one-stop service from the mobile App.

Account-based

Online fare purchases will be made immediately available for use and an account-based architecture coupled with an open API portal will facilitate creative partnerships and systems extensions.

The benefit will open up more applications for the convenience or benefit to the passengers or users.

The drawback is that the taxpayer will have to absorb the initial huge investment and also giveaway the local profitable business to Visa, Mastercard, Apple pay,…

Conclusion

The plan has not clearly stated that mobile communication technologies to be used. Will it be still using existing NFC and maybe QR code-based technologies?

This is a critical step toward a truly smart city in which people don’t have to carry any more cards.

The author has 18 years of experience in the related industry. To learn more about the new technology of mobile payment for automated fare collection, please visit mobileafc.net