The first deployment of Littlepay’s contactless EMV payment technology in France has been announced following the launch of a contactless open loop fare collection system in the city of Besançon, across Ginko’s network of over 200 buses and trams.
Launched in partnership with Keolis Besançon, Kuba, La Banque Postale and Littlepay, the modular ticketing solution has been developed to provide a frictionless, tap-to-ride experience, where passengers tap a contactless payment method onto a Kuba (Vix CP6500) payment reader as they board.
Littlepay’s payment platform receives tap data from the KubaPay solution and processes payments, using La Banque Postale for acquiring services. Payments can be made using a Visa, Mastercard or co-branded Carte Bancaires credit or debit card, or a contactless-enabled mobile wallet.
The solution is designed to make fare payments simpler and boarding faster for Besançon’s public transport users, who make up to 30 million trips each year. It’s hoped the modernisation of ticketing will help improve the passenger experience and encourage more people to make sustainable travel choices.
The launch is the first phase of a rollout of contactless open loop fare collection in Besançon, and a second phase is planned on suburban lines in September 2022.
Paul Griffin, global head of commercial at Littlepay, said: “It’s been great to work with the City of Besançon and our partners, introducing a tap-to-ride system. We’re confident this will significantly improve the experience of using public transport and motivate more people to leave their cars at home.”
Ahead of the launch of the project, Littlepay integrated with La Banque Postale as the acquirer, and added French language localisation to its platform. An end-to-end processing connection to La Banque Postale allows access to the Carte Bancaires card scheme – one of France’s most widely used payment methods, with over 70 million cards issued, and offers lower processing costs to merchants.
In addition to open loop payment processing, Littlepay’s Inspect APIs were used by Ginko and Kuba to develop an inspection app to minimise fare evasion on the deployment. This is installed on NFC-compatible, Android mobile devices to enable staff to carry out fare inspections, checking cards against a list of known taps.
