LECIP Inc. and the City of Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus (BBB) have signed a contract worth more than $7 million for Lecip to deliver a new automated fare collection system that best serves BBB riders.
"We are partnering with Lecip and Trapeze to create one of the most technically advanced fare collection systems in North America," said Patrick Campbell, Chief Operations Officer of Big Blue Bus. "Passenger boarding will be faster thanks to Lecip farebox technology. The Big Blue Bus will be the first North American transit agency with the ability to accept payments from mobile phones based on Trapeze's Mobile Ticketing solution.
The Lecip fareboxes, planned for installation on Big Blue Buses, can accept cash, magnetic stripe cards, and smart cards. The new system will also include cashless ticket vending machines and a robust back office processing system.
"We are very excited to be working with Big Blue Bus and Trapeze to deliver a state-of-the-art system for BBB's riders," said Chung Chung Tam, Vice President Automated Fare Collection Systems at Lecip. "While we are new to the North American market, we are not new to transit and we are excited to be able to provide our proven technology to Big Blue Bus riders in Santa Monica and across the west side of Los Angeles."
"We believe mobile ticketing is the fare collection technology of the future," said John Hines, President from Trapeze. "We are excited to partner with Lecip to provide this leading service offering to Big Blue Bus riders."
