Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) in the USA has approved a contract amendment delivered by John Laing Group for the state-of-the-art plan in improvements to fare collection and travel across all modes of public transport on the MBTA.

The MBTA fare and ticketing upgrade project, won by a consortium of John Laing and Cubic Transportation Systems, a business division of Cubic Corporation (Cubic), in 2018, has matured in ambition as all parties have striven to deliver a practical and future-proofed solution to the travelling public. As the challenges of population growth and urbanization have put greater pressure on major cities, the demand for a simpler through-ticketing and fare collection system has increased: currently, travellers in Boston use a combination of buses, subway, commuter rail, light rail and ferries, all operated by MBTA on legacy fare and ticketing systems. To accommodate additional features and to implement a more phased rollout of the fare collection system improvements, MBTA, John Laing and Cubic have jointly decided to expand and upgrade the project.

The project enhancement approach requires pragmatism and a focus on what will deliver the best results for clients and users in the long-term. The upgraded financing, which utilises short and medium-term commercial bank debt, also includes modest additional equity commitments from John Laing and Cubic.