Metrolinx: Cloud Innovation is Transforming Transit Payments
The need for robust and efficient public transportation has never been greater. Reliable transit systems are crucial for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, easing traffic on roads and providing accessible mobility options. However, a key challenge facing transit agencies globally is ensuring a convenient and seamless experience for users, from trip planning to fare payments.
An agency of the Government of Ontario under the Metrolinx Act, 2006, Metrolinx was created to improve this experience: coordinating and integrating all modes of transportation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.
Metrolinx's mission is to champion, develop and implement an integrated transportation system that enhances prosperity, sustainability and quality of life. It owns and operates GO Transit, UP Express and PRESTO – an integrated transit network that simplifies travel within Ontario.
Steve Brar, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology and Information Officer of Payments at Metrolinx, leads the team spearheading a transformation in how commuters pay for transit, driven by a vision to make public transportation the preferred choice for millions of Ontarians.
Joining Metrolinx when its Payments Division was beginning to transform PRESTO, its fare payments system, to one that offers more modern and convenient payment options to meet customers’ evolving needs.
“Metrolinx is building an affordable, integrated, and sustainable transit network that connects communities to the things that matter most to them,” he says. “A core part of that mission is fare and service integration – and a key part of that is facilitating a seamless payment experience for customers who travel through the multiple transit systems across the region we serve.”
By introducing innovative payment options and streamlining regional fare integration, Metrolinx aims to reduce friction points and provide the quality experience that today's transit users expect.
“It's incredibly rewarding to enhance the commute of over five million people by delivering products and services that make it easier and more convenient for them to pay for transit,” he says. “Witnessing the positive reactions of commuters to our new services, specifically when it comes to credit and debit payments, is extremely satisfying. Our efforts to increase convenience and reduce friction not only improve the experience for daily commuters but also uphold the trust stakeholders and commuters have in the Metrolinx brand.”
Leading the payments transformation at Metrolinx
In his current role at Metrolinx, Steve has championed a large-scale modernisation of the region's transit payments infrastructure. Under his direction, PRESTO has undergone a comprehensive overhaul to enable open-loop payments via major credit cards, debit cards, mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, and even virtual fare cards within mobile wallet apps.
“Established in 2006, the PRESTO system was designed to use smart card technology to replace tickets, tokens, passes or cash that customers traditionally used to pay for transit in the region,” he says.
“Technology and customer expectations have evolved significantly since PRESTO’s inception. We embarked on a transformation journey a few years ago to ensure that Metrolinx continues to meet the evolving needs of our customers and transit agency partners, to make it easier to choose transit first.”
Today, Metrolinx’s innovative new payment products have revolutionised how customers pay transit fares. Through Ontario’s One Fare Program, transit riders using PRESTO only pay once when transferring between local transit agencies and the regional GO Transit system, making travel more accessible and affordable for millions.
Achieving this milestone required extensive technological innovation and collaboration. Amid global chip shortages and manufacturing challenges, Brar’s team arranged the design, manufacturing and deployment of 16,000 advanced on-vehicle payment devices alongside overhauling backend fare management systems. PRESTO's services were also migrated to Azure cloud, adopting DevOps practices and prioritising security through DevSecOps.
“In recent years, our division has matured its culture so that it is engaged, high-performing and data-driven,” Steve says. “The latter aspect has enhanced our business intelligence system and enabled us to analyse the outcomes of our products and services.”
PRESTO's contactless payment transformation has exceeded expectations, accelerating Metrolinx's embrace of cutting-edge technologies like machine learning and generative AI (Gen AI).
“PRESTO contactless and PRESTO in Google Wallet usage exceeded PRESTO’s expectations and continues to grow months after their rollouts. As well, customers have reported great satisfaction with both products, and we’ve received recognition from global counterparts for our innovative work in the payments industry. We’ve also just launched the PRESTO card in Apple Wallet, marking the first time in Canada that a transit card is available in Apple Wallet.
“The technology transformation has given us the ability to scale with demand and handle spikes efficiently. We feel confident in our security posture by applying Zero Trust and leveraging Azure Sentinel for security information and event management.
“Our data lake is on Azure, and we are standardised on Power BI for all our business intelligence and provide data as a service to our transit agencies. It’s accelerated our advanced analytics by utilising Azure Machine Learning and we’ve built our first on-cloud machine learning model plus are investing in Gen AI with Azure Open AI.”
Cloud enables Metrolinx’s transformation
A key enabler of Metrolinx's rollout of innovative new payment solutions like open-loop credit/debit payments and the PRESTO virtual card in Google and Apple Wallet has been the transit agency’s adoption of cloud computing. PRESTO's account-based payment platform is cloud-native in Azure, along with the data analytics platform and tooling that powers it.
Embracing the public cloud has allowed Metrolinx to rapidly deploy these new products and services without the need to build out extensive custom on-premises infrastructure. This cloud focus provides scalability to handle increasing demand, multi-region resiliency and backup capabilities, robust cybersecurity measures and enhanced business intelligence.
“PRESTO’s open-loop payments (credit, debit) and virtual card in Google and Apple Wallet work on an account-based platform that is Azure cloud native. Our data and analytics platform and tooling are all based on the Azure platform and tooling.”
The power and flexibility of the cloud has been instrumental in driving Metrolinx's payments transformation. “The adoption of public cloud has enabled us to deploy our new set of products and services rapidly, focus on creating new customer experiences and develop new platform-level capabilities,” Steve says. “Instead of a custom on-prem infrastructure build-out, the public cloud provides scale-out to meet increasing demand, multi-region resiliency, back-up and storage, advanced cybersecurity and enhanced business intelligence.
“It further enables PRESTO to move at a faster speed and greater agility by leveraging the continuously evolving capabilities and maturing of the underlying cloud platform and the new tools becoming available on Azure.”
Partners powering payments innovation
Metrolinx has cultivated a robust partner ecosystem critical to developing and delivering innovative transit payment solutions. Key relationships span 11 transit agency partners like TTC and Hamilton Street Railway, major retailers like Shoppers Drug Mart's 426 locations, payment networks such as Interac, Visa and Mastercard, along with technology leaders like Accenture, Scheidt & Bachmann and Microsoft.
“Our partners play an essential role in meeting the high expectations of our clients and transit riders, who demand a seamless, frictionless, and high-quality experience,” Steve explains. “Close collaboration, transparency and trust are key in fostering innovation and bringing new experiences to the market at pace. Our partners' commitment is clear, and they go the extra mile to ensure that our services are robust and cutting-edge.”
Metrolinx’s partnership with Scheidt & Bachmann exemplifies its commitment to innovation. Based on principles like operating as ‘one team’ with open communication, executive engagement, transparency and a unified vision transcending individual agendas, Scheidt & Bachmann has been pivotal in rapidly designing, manufacturing and deploying cutting-edge fare gate readers and payment processing technology, all while facing tight timelines.
“As the CTO and CIO of a leading transit payment company, our collaboration with Scheidt & Bachmann (S&B) represents our commitment to innovation and partnership excellence,” Steve explains. “Our partnerships are very important. We lean heavily on our technology and service providers such as Scheidt & Bachmann, Accenture and Microsoft. These relationships enable us to develop and rapidly introduce market-leading transit payment experiences and technology. Our partners play an essential role in ensuring we provide a seamless payments experience.”
Outlook for the future: Innovation and transformation
As Metrolinx looks to the next 12-18 months, the transit agency remains laser-focused on driving innovation and transformation in how it delivers services and products to meet the evolving needs of customers and stakeholders.
“PRESTO’s innovation and transformation journey continues, and the next 12-18 months will be critical as we continue to enact change on how we deliver services and products while ensuring that we meet the needs of our customers and stakeholders,” Steve says.
Upcoming key initiatives will include enhancing customer experiences and ensuring equality and equity, completing Metrolinx’s delivery of additional payment options, transitioning to a fully account-based transit payment platform, elevating its digital offerings and modernising its back-end system/services and investigating how AI can help Metrolinx and its partners improve their business needs.
To enable these initiatives, close collaboration with transit agency partners will be crucial. “Together, we will drive innovation at a pace that aligns with the expectations of our stakeholders and today’s transit commuters, ensuring that our solutions support access and equity for all users.”
Metrolinx recognises that emerging technologies like machine learning, generative AI, and computer vision have immense potential to transform the transit payment experience. As such, the agency is proactively establishing the foundational capabilities to effectively test, integrate and scale these innovations.
“The integration of various technologies such as machine learning, generative and vision AI, biometrics for payments, cybersecurity and the proliferation of diverse transit mobility devices will have a significant impact on transit payment systems by driving efficiency and shaping the future of urban mobility,” Steve concludes.
“We will test, adopt and prudently integrate new technology, ensuring our customers’ security and privacy are intact. Understanding the needs of our customers will be important as we adopt new technological innovations.”
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