CANADA: Greater Montréal transport authority ARTM has awarded UK-based Masabi a contract to develop and implement a modernised fare collection system under the Concerto programme aimed at improving the user experience for public transport customers.
Masabi is to supply its Justride software-as-a-service platform, which designed to enable transport authorities to deploy quickly flexible fare collection systems supporting a variety of payment methods including contactless cards, smartphones, smart cards and mobile tickets. Masabi is working with global engineering consultancy WSP on the project.
The Concerto programme has a budget of C$146m, including contingency. Masabi said this compared very favourably to similar initiatives worldwide, thanks to the reuse of existing hardware, ‘rigorous’ negotiations which reduced the cost by C$95m between the first and second calls for tenders, and the choice of a scalable cloud-based system which could evolve with the addition of new features and functionality over time.
‘By opting for software-as-a-service over the cumbersome and inflexible, legacy build and maintain approach, ARTM will deliver continuous and regular innovation, at a much lower cost’, commented Masabi CEO Brian Zanghi when the contract was announced on July 16.
‘Concerto is much more than just a tech project — it’s a deep transformation of the customer experience’, added ARTM CEO Benoit Gendron. ‘It is a top priority for the ARTM, and we’re moving forward methodically, step by step, delivering tangible results’.
