Cubic develops tools to deliver multi-modal information and ticketing vision

Cubic Transportation is among the companies presenting a new vision for transport systems at the Travel 2020 conference, based on integrating information and payment systems for all modes of public and private transport.

The IT tools to implement its ‘Nextcity’ vision are in different stages of development and are being created from a range of Cubic systems explains Martin Howell, worldwide marketing and communication Director at Cubic Transportation Systems. Cubic is a leading provider of integrated revenue management systems and services for the mass transit industry - leading for TfL on Oyster for example - but operates in sectors beyond that.

The company designs and delivers systems and provides the fare payment infrastructure including gates, ticket machines and smart card readers, and the back end or central system for processing and reporting revenue and other data.

The first stage in its new offer will involve building on the Nextfare e-fares payment collection system, already in use in 15 countries. It is evolving into Nextaccount, which will become the integration engine that joins up charging systems for all modes of transport. It will accept new payment technology including contactless bank cards, transport smartcards, and NFC phones, be able to deal with complex multi-modal fare calculations and enable travel choice data to be captured. Its first iteration is currently being trialled in Philadelphia. Future iterations could enable fares to be calculated on the basis of a family’s journey choices rather than just individuals’. Payment will be linked to a Nextledger settlement and clearing system being developed to automate monetary flows and reconciliations between all transport interests in any city.

In the Nextcity vision, individuals’ use of different modes of transport will be actively managed through a Nextcontact   customer relationship management  portal. This will be web, mobile and smart-phone enabled for the entire population to receive customised information for all modes of transport. Incentives will be developed to nudge people towards choices which make most efficient use of the entire transport system according to real time conditions on the network.

Information will be managed through a Nextinfo single data repository which will provide dynamic, integrated, configurable and real-time information on all journeys occurring within each city. This would create a holistic picture of cities’ transport use, and remove the information silos that currently exist among different operators, agencies and regulators. The system would enable transport planning bodies to understand the demand for, and use of, the existing transport infrastructure to best determine where excess capacity exists, and where new capacity is required.

Cubic says it has launched the Nextcity project in response to population pressure, urban intensification and environmental forces. It believes that new infrastructure alone will not be able to cater adequately for these pressures, and a new approach will be required to planning and using transport systems so that efficient use is made of existing networks.

Cubic will be exhibiting at Travel 2020 and Martin Howell will be speaking at the conference