On 7 October 2026, from 16:00 to 17:00, the Urban Mobility Open Payments Forum is hosting the webinar “Multi-operator open-loop payment: agree on the destination before mapping the route”.
Passengers do not think in terms of operator boundaries. They simply want to get from one place to another, even when their journey involves different operators, networks or authorities. Fare collection needs to work the same way.
Open-loop payment can make that journey simpler, but introducing it across multiple organisations also raises an important question: how much integration is actually needed?
Before getting into technology, participating organisations need to agree on the destination: what they want the passenger experience to look like, which elements need to be coordinated, and which can continue to be managed independently.
During this one-hour webinar, public transport authorities and operators will share how they have approached this challenge in practice. They will discuss the choices they made, the obstacles they encountered, the areas where alignment proved essential, and where there was still room for autonomy.
The session is open to all professionals interested in public transport, fare collection and payments, with a particular focus on public transport authorities and operators (PTAs and PTOs) working on, or considering, multi-operator fare collection and open-loop payment.
SPEAKERS
- Andrea Soehnchen, UITP
- Carl Jackson, Transport for West Midlands (TfWM)
- Stephanie Lelanz, Rheinbahn
- Simon Laker, Consult Hyperion/Fime
- Till Nikolaus Ponath, Rheinbahn
