Seamless Fare Integration

In 2017, the Regional Transit Authority in cooperation with the Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT), the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART), the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority, M-1 RAIL (QLine) and the Detroit People Mover (DTC) initiated a study to develop a regional approach to revenue collection that would seek to modernize the process of collecting fares, and enhance the mobility of passengers between its respective jurisdictions. The effort led to the development of this Concept of Operations Plan (Plan). The Plan, completed in 2019, describes how with added investment, a transition from the current fare system could be made to switch to an account based Open Payment and Open Architecture system that would ultimately provide seamless fare integration across the Southeast Michigan region.

This envisioned system will offer a regional electronic fare-payment infrastructure using third-party produced and distributed prepaid cards and contactless devices such as smart cards, credit and debit cards, RFID tags, secure bar codes and NFC devices. The new state-of-the-art, integrated, electronic fare payment, distribution, collection and processing system will utilize best practices of modern technologies in the consumer and fare payment sectors, capable of interfacing with both bank and non-bank financial clearing systems for transaction processing and settlement. SeamlessFare SeamlessFare