Contactless Payments • Integrated Travel • Program Management Cal-ITP: California Integrated Travel Project — Phase 3

California’s State Rail Plan envisioned a future of seamless travel across all modes of transportation and mobility services in one of the largest states in the country. The California Integrated Travel Project (Cal-ITP) was launched to help transit agencies of all sizes work toward that vision by modernizing and standardizing operations that improve the customer experience, such as real-time vehicle location information and contactless open-loop fare payment with contactless bank cards and mobile wallets.

Following an extensive research process and showcase of integrated travel technologies and approaches from around the world (see Cal-ITP Phase 1 and 2), in 2018, the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCJPA) received a $27 million Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP) grant to implement a statewide integrated travel project and subsequently awarded Xentrans a long-term, extendable contract to manage the innovative statewide program. Utilizing agile project management, Xentrans works in close collaboration with CCJPA, the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA), the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), and a range of stakeholders across the state to help transit agencies adopt data standards and deploy new technology to collect fares, verify eligibility for fare discounts, and provide real-time vehicle information to customers, through innovative Master Service Agreements (MSAs) that eliminate the need for expensive and redundant procurement processes.

To achieve the ambitious aims of Cal-ITP, Xentrans built a team of more than 85 subcontractors and experts from around the world with subject matter expertise in technology integration, payments, data standards, procurement, and organizational governance—including Compiler, Rebel, Rockland Planning, and URBANLABS. This team provides direct technical support to transit operators implementing open payments and General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) Realtime data, while simultaneously working with Caltrans and CalSTA to position these state agencies to continue assisting transit operators for years to come.

The California Integrated Travel Project has come a long way since its initial inception in 2015. The first two phases of this landmark State-sponsored project took place in 2017–2018. 

Cal-ITP: Phase 3

Following the success of the 2018 California Integrated Travel Conference at the University of California, Davis, CCJPA was awarded $27 million through TIRCP to implement Phase 3, an integrated travel demonstration that could serve as a building block toward a statewide integrated travel program. Through a competitively bid procurement, Xentrans was contracted to serve as the Project Management Office (PMO) to bring this complex, multi-agency initiative to life. Utilizing an agile project management approach, Xentrans quickly established a project framework built around the critical features of a successful integrated mobility network, to guide decision making and goal setting for what could and could not be achieved during Phase 3.

Integrated Mobility Framework (Cal-ITP)

With the guiding Integrated Mobility Framework established, Xentrans contracted a bench of world-leading subject matter experts in technology integration, payments, data standards, procurement, and organizational governance and began working toward the project goals. Initial work focused on establishing a baseline understanding of the state of transit data quality in California, reaching out to the market to better understand the rapidly changing payments landscape, and stress-testing feasibility of different State interventions for establishing an integrated mobility network in the state.

Market Outreach

In August 2019, our subcontractor Rebel led CalSTA and Caltrans in organizing a market sounding kickoff with companies and organizations in the payments, banking, and trip-planning industries. In that meeting, barriers to seamless trip planning and fare payment were identified, such as the lack of uniformity among California’s transit providers. Cal-ITP’s first Market Sounding report was released in October 2019 and explored barriers and identified specific opportunities for Cal-ITP to assist California’s transit providers by leveraging global standards for data and payment systems.

Following the market sounding, Cal-ITP conducted a more thorough analysis to assess the financial and economic impacts of the recommended initiatives. The April 2020 Cal-ITP Feasibility Study details the state of public transit in California and quantifies the economic benefits of Cal-ITP’s three primary initiatives under conservative to moderate assumptions of project costs and ridership effects based on estimated demand.

To increase the quality and quantity of transit data published by California’s transit providers, Cal-ITP and State and regional partners explored passenger-counting technologies in July 2020. Passenger occupancy data is crucial for transportation planning purposes, and physical distancing due to COVID-19 highlighted the benefit for riders to know real-time passenger crowding in trip planning. Cal-ITP’s second market sounding, Real-Time Transit Vehicle Occupancy Report, was published in October 2020.

In 2020, Cal-ITP and partners gathered input from marketplace companies to gauge capabilities and interest in supporting payment issuance. The findings were documented in Cal-ITP’s third market sounding report, Payment Issuance for California Transit, and led to Cal-ITP collaborating with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) in 2021 to understand the market for mobility accounts.

Demonstration Projects

Throughout 2021, Cal-ITP forged new partnerships and live-tested solutions, advancing the project’s vision across what emerged as the three primary project areas:

1. Enabling contactless payments

Adding a contactless payment reader to a bus or train means customers can quickly and easily tap to pay as they board with the bank card or smartphone that’s already in their pocket—just like they’d tap to buy a coffee.

Starting with Monterey-Salinas Transit, Cal-ITP and partners like Visa demonstrated how a transit provider that has traditionally used cash and agency-specific fare cards can accept contactless bank card payments like any other merchant. By the end of 2025, 50 transit providers will have rolled out contactless payments, with at least 25 more expected to be added in Q1 of 2026.

To make it easier and more affordable for public transportation providers anywhere in the U.S. to acquire the building blocks of contactless payments, the California Department of General Services (DGS)—in collaboration with Cal-ITP—conducted a Request for Proposals that established Master Service Agreements (MSAs) allowing public transportation providers to purchase contactless payments hardware and software directly from vendors without further competitive bidding. Learn about the MSAs in our press release, and view the MSAs.

2. Automating customer discounts

The Cal-ITP Benefits web application streamlines the process for transit riders to instantly qualify for and receive discounts, starting with Monterey-Salinas Transit (MST), which offers a half-price Senior Fare. Now older adults (65+) with a State-issued identification card are able to access MST’s reduced fares without the hassle of paperwork.

The Cal-ITP team worked with State (California Department of Technology) and federal (General Services Administration and Login.gov) partners on this product launch. A partnership with Veterans Affairs followed to enable U.S. military veterans to easily access their transit benefits as well. The roadmap for Cal-ITP Benefits includes working to bring youth, lower-income riders, people with disabilities, and others the same instant access to free or reduced fares across all California transit providers, without having to prove eligibility to each agency.

3. Standardizing information for easy trip planning

Cal-ITP is helping transit providers remove the guesswork for riders wondering when the next bus or train will arrive or if they’ll make their connection by using the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS)—the global standard for publishing transit information. Cal-ITP developed the California Transit Data Guidelines and is working to ensure statewide GTFS Schedule (also known as Static) and Realtime coverage. Along the way, the Cal-ITP team is supporting transit providers by assessing their systems and providing technical assistance—so riders can easily access complete, accurate, consistent, and timely mobility data for their journey.

Building Lasting Support at the State Level

The California Integrated Travel Project (Cal-ITP), managed by Xentrans as the Project Management Office (PMO), was intentionally designed not just to implement new technologies, but to embed lasting support from State and institutional partners to sustain transit services far into the future, so that the benefits of standardized data, streamlined procurement, and improved customer experience will continue to serve transit agencies long after the initial demonstration phases are complete. Cal-ITP’s strategy has involved formalizing new functions at Caltrans and spinning out new data standards to independent governance, backed by strong interagency partnerships.

A Model for Customer Success

Recognizing that smaller agencies often lack the resources to adopt new technology, the Cal-ITP Customer Success program was developed as a model for State transportation departments to proactively support the needs of the transit agencies they serve by offering dedicated technical assistance from a specialized Account Manager. Xentrans worked with Compiler to design and stand up a Customer Success team to help agencies navigate the often complex challenges of technology acquisition and implementation. The Customer Success program has proven enormously popular with transit agencies across the state, particularly for small and rural operators.

At the same time, Xentrans and Compiler have worked hand-in-hand with Caltrans on a transition framework for the Customer Success program to ensure permanent adoption by Caltrans staff. This transition process includes detailed Staffing Plans, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to monitor the successes and blockers to the program’s goals. The formal handoff of the Customer Success program began in 2025 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.

Supporting Global Data Standards with MobilityData

Over the course of Cal-ITP Phase 3, Xentrans worked with a range of subcontractors to advance new data standards and support technologies to improve transit data quality and consistency. However, the project team knew that long-term sustainability for core data standards requires ownership outside of a single State government entity. For this reason, the team partnered with MobilityData, a non-profit organization, to manage the development and adoption of key data standards and supporting tools, effectively spinning out these crucial functions into the broader global transit data community.

This transfer included the management of:

  • The General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) Canonical Validator and Global Database: Cal-ITP funded the formal adoption of these two critical tools that had previously been created by the GTFS community but lacked institutional support or investment for wider use.
  • The Transit Operational Data Standard (TODS): Cal-ITP funded the initial development of TODS in 2021–2022 to create a common standard for transit operational data and improve efficiency in back-end operations.
  • The Mobility Data Interoperability Principles (MDIP): Cal-ITP, among other organizations, co-authored MDIP, which promotes the use of open standards and interoperable technology in the mobility industry.
  • The Transit Integrated Data Exchange Specification (TIDES): TIDES is a specification for historical operations data (including vehicle location, passenger counts, and fare transactions). Cal-ITP staff contributed to its realization and recognized the need for it to succeed with external organizational support.

By transferring the management of TODS, MDIP, and TIDES to MobilityData along with the GTFS Validator and Database, Cal-ITP ensures these critical projects benefit from consistent global support and buy-in, thereby conserving public dollars and better ensuring that the data standards remain cost-effective and equitable for both larger and smaller transit systems. Cal-ITP continues to support MobilityData with a contract covering the management of these initiatives through mid-2027.

Institutionalizing Data and Digital Expertise at Caltrans

Bridging the gap between the global support of an organization like MobilityData and the targeted general support of Customer Success was a crucial goal for Xentrans and the Cal-ITP team, and proved to be an early success in building more resilient internal expertise at the State level. Xentrans worked with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to set up a Transit Data Quality (TDQ) team within the newly created Division of Data and Digital Services (DDS). This specialized team provides free, ongoing technical assistance and strategic management necessary to maintain high-quality transit data statewide, thereby greatly improving the rider experience across California.

The TDQ team supports agencies by ensuring the production and maintenance of high-quality General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data, essential for rider experience and accurate trip planning. The TDQ team maintains a help desk, fixing issues for agencies whose GTFS data requires attention. Furthermore, TDQ staff now lead critical research—into topics such as holiday service data discrepancies to identify ongoing systemic data problems and propose organizational changes and technical solutions at the statewide level. By housing these functions within Caltrans DDS, the State gains the permanent technical capability required to improve data quality and provide essential technical assistance.

Collaboration with the California Air Resources Board

Through our subcontractor Rebel, Cal-ITP has served as a State-funded innovation partner to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), providing payments and data expertise related to equitable mobility incentive programs. This partnership helps CARB leverage the retail payments ecosystem to increase the efficiency of fund distribution and improve how low-income residents access benefits.

Specific collaborations include Cal-ITP assisting CARB by performing research to develop legal requirements for payment acceptance technologies at electric vehicle (EV) chargers. Cal-ITP also provided comprehensive procurement advisory services, including developing the Request for Proposals (RFP) and vendor engagement for air districts purchasing prepaid cards to distribute Clean Cars 4 All (CC4A) subsidies. The Cal-ITP team conducted studies on complex payment issues, such as Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) in mobility, EV Payments Transparency, and the potential for “Multiple Wallets” to consolidate funding sources onto one credential. By embedding these capabilities, Cal-ITP helps CARB optimize its ecosystem to implement new technologies and prepare for scaling incentives.

Digital Identity Partnership with the California Department of Technology

Cal-ITP’s initiative to automate transit discounts (Cal-ITP Benefits) relies heavily on developing lasting technical capacity within the California Department of Technology (CDT). The core of this digital solution streamlines the process for riders to verify eligibility for reduced fares. Riders use a secure service provided by CDT’s Identity Gateway to verify their identity and benefit eligibility online via Login.gov.

This system is being expanded to allow CalFresh (SNAP) participants to verify their active participation online as a proxy for low-income status, eliminating the need for in-person verification at a transit agency. Through our subcontractors at Rebel and Compiler, Xentrans and the Cal-ITP team have worked to build capacity at CDT to radically improve the identity verification experience and help CDT implement its business plan. The technical and management components of the Cal-ITP Benefits program were fully transitioned to CDT in October 2025, formalizing this eligibility verification process as a permanent State service.