Littlepay and Modeshift establish reusable model for deploying open-loop transit payments across Europe

The partners’ first deployment in Hungary establishes a proven blueprint that transport authorities and operators can replicate across Europe.

Littlepay and Modeshift have successfully delivered an open-loop fare payments solution for Hungarian bus operator T-Busz, establishing a certified, reusable deployment model that can be replicated by transport authorities and operators across Europe.

The initial pilot covers five buses, and provides a foundation that can be expanded across T-Busz’s wider network of 42 buses, serving approximately 11.4 million passenger journeys annually. Crucially, the project validates an implementation blueprint that combines open architecture, proven transit payment technology and clearly defined delivery processes. Repeating this model will reduce delivery times, cost and risk of future deployments. 

The project marks the first live deployment by Littlepay and Modeshift, whose strategic partnership gives transport operators and authorities the ability to modernise fare payments using a modular system provided by specialist technology providers. By avoiding proprietary architectures and single vendor lock-in, they can benefit from proven, interoperable technology, while retaining the flexibility to evolve their fare payment strategy and systems as needed.

Modeshift leads the overall solution, providing fare management, customer integration, traveller services and overall project delivery. Littlepay provides the specialist open-loop transit payments platform, enabling secure EMV transit payment processing. Elavon delivers merchant acquiring and settlement services. Together, the partners have established a certified deployment model that can be rapidly rolled-out across Europe, providing transport operators and authorities with a faster, lower-risk route to open-loop transit payments.

Initially, T-Busz will use the system to process EMV payments for flat fares. However, the underlying architecture has been designed to offer a wide range of ticketing and payments capabilities without replacing the core payments infrastructure. These include Account-Based Ticketing (ABT), fare aggregation, fare capping, concessions and other mobility services.

Sarah McLaughlin, Senior Business Development Manager at Littlepay, said:

“This project is about far more than delivering a successful pilot. Together with Modeshift we’ve established a proven deployment model that transport operators and authorities can adopt with confidence. Our certified solution reduces implementation risk, accelerates deployment and provides customers with the flexibility to evolve their fare payments strategy as technology and passenger expectations change.”

Borislav Gorov, Vice President of Sales at Modeshift, said:

“This deployment demonstrates the strength of combining specialist technologies into a single customer solution. Working with Littlepay allows us to offer transport operators a modern, modular fare payment platform that can be deployed quickly today while providing a clear path towards future Account-Based Ticketing capabilities.”

The deployment with T-Busz provides a practical example of how transport operators and authorities can introduce contactless open-loop payments using specialist technology partners. With a proven approach now established, Littlepay and Modeshift are well placed to support similar projects across Europe.

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