The year is 2014.
Taylor Swift dropped ‘1989’, one of the best albums of the decade. Buckets of icy cold water raised global awareness of neurological disease. And Apple teased its plans to put phones on our wrists.
Also happening in 2014, a transit agency in Central Texas changed how people pay and ride public transit forever.
Before the launch of CapMetro’s first mobile app, riding transit wasn’t always as easy to ride as it is today. Rushing to catch a bus while juggling coffee, a bag, and a phone, then digging into your pockets to pay your fare, only to pull out lint, didn’t make for the best rider experience.
How we interact with the world (and each other) has been completely transformed by technology. As tech like smartphones became the norm, we learned a good mobile app can make all the difference.
Technology is always changing, and CapMetro is committed to keeping up. From our app’s humble beginnings to the present day, each step has built on the last to make your rides easier and more convenient.
Let’s go for a ride to explore those steps and learn where we were, where we are now, and where we’ll be taking mobile fare payments in the future.
The Early Days: The First Ways to Pay
The first iteration of the CapMetro mobile app was launched in 2014 and brought new mobile ticketing technology to the new MetroRapid–Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).
At launch, it was among the nation’s first transit mobile ticketing apps that allowed riders to purchase their fare and plan their rides in advance right from their phones.
The app was a hit. The ability to scan your pre-purchased fare when boarding a Rapid route helped people board quicker and operators stay focused.
In half a year, it reached over 30,000 downloads and $150,000 in ticket sales and won the *Best of Texas* award in the Best Mobile/Wireless Project Category from the Center for Digital Government.
A Step Forward: User-Focused Redesign
By 2016, the CapMetro app had sold its one-millionth mobile ticket. Purchasing fares through the app accounted for 23 percent of all fares sold. That wide level of adoption was second only to Chicago’s Metra commuter rail, which sold a higher percentage of passes through its app.
By the end of 2016, the CapMetro app was downloaded over 300,000 times and sold over $7 million in ticket sales.
It was an incredible moment to know how helpful the app was for customers. And yet, while the app saw huge success, user testing found room for improvements.
Riders wanted a simplified trip planner and to make our maps and schedules intuitive. This feedback helped push the app to the next stage in its evolution. With it, came a visual refresh and a new set of traveler tools, walking distances, trip tracking, customized results, and more.
The app and mobile ticketing could now be used on our entire transit network and not just Rapid routes with future plans for integrations with our other services like bike share.
The AMP Era: Account-Based Flexibility
In 2020, the seeds were laid for the app’s next growth stage.
It would be another three years before the app would evolve again, but when it did, it would fundamentally change how people pay and ride.
The introduction of AMP in 2023 marked a significant shift in fare payments, moving away from traditional models to a more modern, account-based system. This new system was designed not just to modernize fare collection but also to address issues of equity and convenience for all riders.
With AMP came a new mobile app with virtual smart cards and physical smart cards to pay for fares. Key to the system was that it allowed riders to pay-as-you-go, meaning riders could load money into their accounts and have fares deducted as they ride. For the varied rider, this reduced the upfront costs associated with purchasing day, week, or monthly passes.
The new payment method, app interface, and the introduction of fare capping and a new payment tier (Equifare) marked a commitment by CapMetro to make its services more equitable, accessible, and modern.
It was the next big leap from the days of needing exact change to board a bus to making transit better for everyone.
The Next Generation: Tap to Pay & More!
In 2023, public transit in Austin got another huge boost.
First, we collab’d with [Transit’s popular app] (https://www.capmetro.org/plan/transit-app) to give riders new ways to ride, plan, and track trips.
The CapMetro and Transit apps are great companions to one another, allowing riders to purchase passes and use precise real-time locations and alerts to plan and track trips.
It gets better. CapMetro riders unlock Transit Royale for FREE! The premium tier of Transit’s app comes with even more functionality like customizable app themes, full access to transit schedules across ALL transit lines, not just the ones nearby, leveled-up trip planning options, and, for the fiercest of transit enthusiasts, leaderboards!
Best of all, Transit app integrates with the revamped CapMetro Bikeshare for even more seamless public transit riding options!
Which brings us here, to now. Our tech ambitions have come a long way over the last decade, but a bit further yet to go.
This coming March (2025), we hope to launch the next evolution for how to pay for rides.
Starting March 1, 2025, the old CapMetro app will be sunsetted to make way for the Umo app. Similar to now, riders can use the new Umo app to pay for fares and Transit’s app to plan trips. This spring, the dynamic duo of well-known transit apps will arrive to power your public transit experience.
The Umo app will feature a simple, universal UI that will work in any city where Umo is used–say goodbye to switching apps when traveling!
Along with the new changes come new validators on buses and trains. These new and improved scanners will replace our current validators, some of which are almost 20 years old, and feature improved scanning technology for smoother boarding. Best of all, you can use Tap-to-Pay through your credit/debit card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay.
To be clear, how you pay for fares is changing. What you pay is not.
So, there you have it – the lowdown on CapMetro’s fare payment journey. It’s a humbling feeling peeking over your shoulder and being reminded of just how far we’ve traveled. It fills us with energy and momentum as we look forward to the road ahead.
Over the last decade, we’ve been carefully enhancing how riders pay their fare. It’s an iterative process that doesn’t end here. We’ll continue improving until we reach our ultimate goal: one ~ring~ app to rule them all.
It’s been quite the journey of continuous improvement and iteration. From the early days of being one of the *first* to offer mobile ticketing to transforming into a new, feature-rich tool to better the rider experience. From then to now and all the stops in between, it’s been a ride.
We’re excited for what comes next! And we hope riders will be too! We’re hosting events to chat with customers about these upcoming changes, get their feedback, and map out future improvements.
To learn more, comment online, or to find how to join our next public engagement event, please visit capmetro.org/fare-updates
