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Product updates
Cal-ITP Benefits now officially supports rider enrollments with transit providers that contract with Enghouse for contactless payments. After nine months of collaboration with teams at Enghouse and Monet+, our integration with Switchio, the platform that handles fare processing for Enghouse, is complete. After riders successfully pass the eligibility check in Cal-ITP Benefits, they provide their contactless debit or credit card details to register their card with Switchio. When they tap-to-pay for transit with the registered card, they automatically receive reduced fares. Cal-ITP Benefits has, of course, supported card registration with Littlepay for several years. Adding support for Enghouse is a significant expansion of our product offering and provides more choice for agencies when selecting vendors. We’re now halfway to our goal to support all vendors listed on Cal-ITP MSAs. Bytemark and Init are next.
This month we launched VCTC in Cal-ITP Benefits. The Ventura County Transportation Commission is our first transit provider that contracts with Enghouse to utilize Cal-ITP Benefits for their discount program. It is the first of numerous agencies in the Ventura county region, and in the state, that will utilize Enghouse services. We’re beginning to see a healthy queue of agencies in the pipeline to onboard to Cal-ITP Benefits in the coming months. Get a preview in the agency adoption table.
MST is the first transit provider offering contactless payments for fare collection to support reduced fares when riders pay using Discover and American Express cards. Transit providers offering tap-to-pay have offered Visa and Mastercard as payment options since launch. Of course not all riders use these issuers, while others want more choice when it comes to how they pay for transit. Cal-ITP Benefits now supports card registration for any combination of the four card schemes an agency wants to offer: Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express. This configuration is set on an agency-by-agency basis by your Cal-ITP Account Manager and can be changed as an agency's card schemes change over time.
The numbers
562
Total rider enrollments
Total rider enrollments using the Cal-ITP Benefits app. We aim to surpass 425 enrollments by the end of 2025.
9,735
Total reduced-fare, open-loop transactions
Total reduced-fare, open-loop transactions processed at California transit agencies that have adopted Cal-ITP Benefits. We aim to surpass 10,000 transactions in 2025.
↓ 4.2%
Percentage change in reduced-fare transactions vs. previous month
Month over month change in reduced-fare, open loop transactions. This activity represents concrete usage of contactless payment by people who benefit from reduced fares.
Cal-ITP Benefits addresses several of Cal-ITP's key goals to improve transit throughout California:
Promote equitable access to transit
Lower costs
Increase Ridership
Improve customer experience
The project also seeks to expand adoption of open-loop payments and supports efforts to provide accurate and complete information for planning trips on public transit in real-time. Learn more about Cal-ITP.
Transit providers! Visit the Mobility Marketplace for a catalog of code-compliant products and services offered by Cal-ITP to support your operations.
