Guéret is the first town in Nouvelle-Aquitaine to be onboarded to a new transit ticketing system that will eventually connect the transit experience across the vast Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.
Earlier this week, Guéret, a town in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of central France, marked the installation of a new Kuba ticketing system, enabled for account-based ticketing and contactless EMV payments. General Manager of Kuba France, Tarik Dinane, was at the launch, attended by Jérôme Kravetz (Director of Nouvelle-Aquitaine Mobilités), Cyril Ruotte (Public Sector and Social Economy Manager at La Banque Postale), and Patrick Rougeot, representing the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region (Vice President of Transport of the Grand Guéret Agglomeration Community).
First use case
The people of Guéret who travel on the AggloBus network will be the first to use the system, which will eventually be rolled-out at scale. The deployment of a unified transit ticketing platform is being coordinated by Nouvelle-Aquitaine Mobilités (NAM), an organisation with 32 members, which has been set up to facilitate sustainable mobility throughout the territory.
At the launch in Guéret, a crowd heard how the system will enable users to tap a validator to board buses using a Modalis card, a credit or debit bank card, or a digital wallet. Eventually, it is hoped that these digital ‘travel tokens’ will replace paper tickets altogether, enhancing passenger convenience, while also reducing waste and litter. The tap-to-travel experience simplifies and speeds-up boarding, helping transport to run on time.
Regional interoperability
Kuba is NAM’s chosen partner to provide a consistent, user-friendly ticketing platform, comprising on-board validators and an account-based ticketing back office. In addition to accepting taps from the Modalis card, validators will accept scans of QR codes displayed on the Modalis app, or of tickets bought at retailers and using ticket vending machines. The system will enable a broad spectrum of ticketing options to meet passengers’ needs.
Nouvelle-Aquitaine Mobilités’ aims to gradually deploy this technology across multimodal urban, suburban and rural networks to deliver seamless interoperability. Guéret was the first network to be equipped with this system and it will be followed by other towns and cities, including Limoges, Tulle, Périgeux, and the TER regional rail network.
Tarik Dinane says, “It’s great to see the beginnings of this project for Nouvelle-Aquitaine Mobilités. The launch in Guéret is the start of an incredible journey, which will see Kuba play a central role in transforming transport ticketing and simplifying payments for travellers in one of the largest and most populated administrative regions of France.”
Want to know more about how Kuba is driving the future of transit ticketing? We’d love to hear from you, so feel free to get in touch.
