Florida awards e-fare system deal to Init

Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART), the lead procurement agency of the local Regional Working Group (RWG) in Tampa, Florida, has awarded 511 Init the contract for a region-wide electronic fare management system.  The RWG consists of eight county transit agencies from Hillsborough, Pinellas, Citrus, Hernando, Manatee, Pasco, Polk, and Sarasota. Additional project partners include the TBARTA and FDOT who have come together to procure the state-of-the–art e-fare system.

The contract between Init and the RWG involves the deployment of an integrated fare system using account-based smart cards and mobile ticketing. INIT’s passenger terminals, PROXmobil3, will be installed on more than 600 buses for the validation of the new fare media.

Init will also supply a back-end clearing and processing system, MOBILEvario, to facilitate the management of RWG’s individual customer accounts, setting of fare rules, revenue processing and statistical evaluation reporting, providing a seamless fare structure across eight counties while ensuring the secure administration of each agency’s data.

Also included in the project are interactive voice response (IVR) applications and new enhanced web portals to allow customers to check balances, register cards and load values, as well as manage mobile payment applications using via smartphone.

“The Regional Working Group is excited to bring this innovative system to our riders.” said Jeff Seward, HART CFO.  “It will move our region into the future of transit fare collection and allow our riders an unparalleled, flexible rider experience.  The project will provide great value to our region, improve on time performance, and reduce costs.”