Littlepay has announced that it has won a contract with Helsinki Regional Transport to allow the city’s travellers to pay for public transport using contactless cards.
Helsinki Regional Transport, in partnership with TVV lippu- ja maksujärjestelmä Oy (LMJ), selected Littlepay following a competitive tendering process. The procurement team was impressed by Littlepay’s strong track record in transit payment processing, the modularity of its platform and its ability to handle seamless payment processing across multiple transport modes.
Helsinki places great emphasis on motivating its citizens to pursue environmentally friendly lifestyles. Working with Littlepay to provide a simple, easy way to pay for city-wide travel, it aims to encourage both its citizens and tourists to use public transport more. Contactless EMV is seen as a vital link in the process of improving customer experience and boosting ridership.
Work on the deployment begins immediately, starting with a flat-fare pilot for the city’s ferry route. Rollout to rail and bus, and the introduction of fare capping, will follow.
Littlepay CEO, Amin Shayan, said: “Littlepay is honoured to have been selected as the provider for contactless EMV for the great city of Helsinki. We’re looking forward to enabling people to pay for travel using what they already have in their pocket. This is a region that’s increasingly cashless; there’s a huge demand for this service and we anticipate strong uptake.”
The Helsinki win comes a month after Littlepay announced its involvement in a project to bring contactless payments to Porto airport’s metro line and STCP trams in the second quarter of 2020. Roll-out to the Andante transport network is planned to follow.
In Porto, Littlepay is working alongside CyberSource, Visa, Porto Intermodal Transport (TIP), Unicre and Card4B. This will be the first time in Portugal that passengers will be able to use a contactless bank card to pay for public transport, simply tapping a validator as they board.
Shayan said: “It’s great to be expanding into Europe with these innovative schemes, working with forward-thinking cities to drive a shift towards increased use of public transport.”