Mass Transit

FEB 2015

Mass Transit magazine features agency profiles, industry trends, management tips and new product information.

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FEBRUARY 2015 | MassTransitmag.com | Mass Transit | 23 Te North Texas Tollway Associ- ation (NTTA) is developing such a system, and they are looking at partnering with DART in 2015. Finally, mo- bile ticket- ing allows DART several ways to ofer a new value proposition to its customers. It is important to make transit eas- ier from the very frst touch point customers have with the system. Since customers have to plan ahead to use transit in Dallas, the app includes a trip planner, rider alerts for service disruptions and the ability to view estimated times of arrival for buses and trains. Ad- ditionally, trip planner results in- clude information about the type of ticket required for the journey and a link to the ticket purchase screen so customers can buy their ticket ahead of time. Te ability to buy a ticket before arriving at the train station or bus stop was one of the features that custom- ers commented about frequently. Not having to pull out their credit card or cash at a rail station makes people feel safer. Testing, Launch and Rollout Te project manager for DART, Lawrence Sutton, was the agency face to Unwire, the Danish com- pany that developed the app, and was responsible for, "making sure it (GoPass) works." To help ensure that it would work, Sutton insisted that the project schedule incorpo- rated adequate time for testing, including both a functional test and a four-week beta test. For the beta test, a small number of customers was selected as beta testers and a private Face- book group was established to allow them to commu- nicate with each other. Te testers took ownership of the app and afer the launch, many comments in the app stores and on social media began with "I was a tester for the app …" Te DART Marketing Department developed a full advertising campaign with the theme "Paper is so yesterday." Te revenue team within fnance briefed and trained customer service personnel, bus operators and fare enforcement ofcers, all of whom became an enthusiastic sales force for the new mobile ticketing product. GoPass was launched on Sept. 16, 2013. It was fully deployed to the entire customer base without a pilot beyond the beta test group and also incorporated ticketing products of two other agencies, the Fort Worth Transportation Authority and the Denton County Transportation Authority. With- in the frst 60 days, the app was downloaded 60,000 times from the Apple App and Google Play stores. We decided to measure the success of the app based on the number of downloads, be- cause some customers will need to develop trust in the app before they make purchases. My priori- ty was to get the app installed on customers' phones, knowing that the ticket purchases would follow. By the one-year anniversary of the lauch of GoPass there have been more than 200,000 downloads of the app, far exceeding our internal estimates of 50,000. DART ofered tickets up to 31 days in duration for adults, chil- dren and seniors. While students have a high percentage of smart- phone market penetration, they are also high on the list of secu- rity concerns, so DART will add special tickets for them later. In January 2014, DART ofered mobile tickets for its prepaid cor- porate and student passes. Tese are passes paid for by a corpora- tion or university and previously distributed via stickers on IDs or a printed DART pass. Tis old method was very labor intensive, F Photos courtesy of DART DART'S GOPASS is embraced by riders and visitors in town for major events.

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