For too long, riders and transit agencies have been constrained by outdated fare collection systems. The frustration is familiar: fumbling for exact change, waiting in line to load a physical card, or the anxiety of a lost ticket. These systems are not just inconvenient for riders and agencies; they are costly, rigid, and operationally burdensome.

But a new era of fare collection has been here for many years now, and it’s powered by the cloud. The combination of Account-Based Ticketing (ABT) and the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model is no longer a futuristic concept—it is a proven, scalable, and essential solution for modernizing public transit.

This article will explore why SaaS ABT platforms like Matawan’s WanFare are poised to become the standard for fare collection worldwide, offering unprecedented benefits for both agencies and the communities they serve.

What is a SaaS ABT Platform?

To understand the revolution, you first need to understand the components.

Account-Based Ticketing (ABT) fundamentally shifts the fare collection paradigm. Instead of the value being stored on a physical token (like a paper ticket or a smart card), the value resides in a secure, digital account in the cloud. The physical media—whether it’s a contactless bank card, a mobile phone, or an agency-issued credential—becomes a simple identifier for the account. The system validates the rider’s identity, calculates the correct fare in the back office, and debits the account.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a delivery model for software where the provider hosts the application and makes it available to customers over the internet. Instead of purchasing, installing, and maintaining complex software on their own servers, transit agencies can access a ready-to-go system on a subscription basis. The provider handles all security, updates, and maintenance, ensuring the system is always running on the latest technology.

A SaaS ABT Platform combines these two powerful concepts. It’s a cloud-native, centralized system that manages rider accounts, processes fares, and provides real-time data, all delivered as a service. This model shifts the focus from managing hardware to delivering a seamless, data-rich service.

Why Are Agencies Making the Switch?

The growth of SaaS ABT like Matawan’s WanFare isn’t just a technological trend; it’s a direct response to the needs of a modernizing transit industry. Here’s why it’s gaining so much momentum.

=> A Superior Rider Experience

• Effortless Payments: Riders can simply tap their contactless credit card, debit card, or mobile wallet (Apple Pay, Google Pay) to ride. No app downloads, no new cards, just a seamless “tap-and-go” experience that mirrors the rest of their daily commerce.
• Automatic Fare Capping: This is a game-changer for riders. The system automatically calculates the best fare for the day, week, or month, ensuring riders never pay more than a pass would cost. This builds trust, encourages ridership, and promotes equity by making transit affordable for all.
• True Multimodal Integration: A single account can be used across multiple modes of transit—buses, trains, subways, and even bike-sharing services. This allows agencies to create a unified mobility network, making it easier for people to get where they need to go.

=> Unprecedented Benefits for Transit Agencies

• Lower Total Cost of Ownership: SaaS eliminates the need for massive upfront capital expenditure on hardware and software. Agencies move from a one-time, high-cost investment to a predictable, pay-as-you-go operational expense, which is often easier to budget and manage.
• Faster, More Agile Deployment: Implementing a traditional on-premise system can take years. With SaaS, agencies can deploy a new system in months, not years, accelerating their modernization efforts and bringing new features to riders faster.
• Continuous Innovation: The SaaS model ensures the system is constantly updated with the latest security patches and features. Agencies automatically benefit from new technologies like improved fraud detection or new payment methods without having to manage costly and disruptive software upgrades.
• Powerful Data & Insights: Since all fare data is collected and processed in the cloud, agencies gain access to real-time, actionable insights into ridership patterns, fare revenue, and travel behavior. This data empowers them to optimize routes, adjust service, and make more informed decisions.
• Reduced Operational Burden: The SaaS provider manages the complex IT infrastructure, allowing the transit agency to focus on its core mission: providing safe, reliable, and efficient transportation.

Matawan: A Platform for All Agencies

Matawan has successfully implemented its ABT SaaS platform with hundreds of transit agencies, proving that a single, robust solution can scale to meet diverse needs. The platform has been adopted by a wide range of organizations, from the smallest agency operating with just two buses to the biggest regional ones managing more than 3,000 vehicles.

The strength of our SaaS platform lies in its flexibility to serve multiple sizes and types of agencies. Matawan’s solution has been deployed on a variety of systems, including buses, ferries, rail systems, and vans, showcasing its adaptability. Regardless of the size or mode of transport, the results are always consistent: enhanced cost efficiency, a measurable increase in ridership, and powerful data insights that inform strategic decisions.

In Drummondville, Canada, implementing an advanced fare management system led to 60% less manual processing overall and significant annual savings. Similarly, the transit network in La Rochelle, France, saw 45% of all its validations shift to open payment systems within a single year, demonstrating how a frictionless experience can drive both ridership and revenue.In cities like Ferrara and Bologna, Italy, the automation of complex processes like timetable creation has slashed planning time by up to 80%. In New-York,  the Port Authority Trans-Hudson system, which serves New Jersey and New York City, aims to analyze ridership data accurately to optimize schedules and improve communication with passengers.  

Leveraging validation data and video feeds allowed Matawan to project origin/destination matrices and share passenger loads on each train in just four weeks. These advances in data analysis can drive meaningful improvements in all agencies’ quality of service, such as by informing passengers of anticipated crowding or proactively launching additional vehicles.

The Future is Here: What’s Next?

The shift to SaaS ABT platforms marks a fundamental change in the industry. It moves us from a hardware-centric model, where the terminal holds the intelligence, to a service-oriented model, where the back office is the brain of the operation.

Looking ahead, we can expect to see these platforms become even more powerful. With the data they collect, they can leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict demand, optimize service, and even offer more personalized and flexible fare options. The focus will continue to be on open, modular systems that prevent vendor lock-in and foster a spirit of continuous innovation.

In this new era, fare collection systems are no longer a static piece of infrastructure. They are a dynamic, data-rich service that makes public transit more accessible, more convenient, and ultimately, a more attractive and equitable choice for everyone. The future of fare collection is in the cloud, and it’s ready to ride.