Contactless Payments • Integrated Travel • Program Management Cal-ITP: California Integrated Travel Project — Phases 1 and 2

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 open-loop fare payment with contactless bank cards and mobile wallets.

The first two phases of this landmark state-sponsored project took place in 2017–2018. Read about the third and final phase here.

Phase 1

As work on the 2018 California State Rail Plan began, the State received wide-ranging stakeholder input in 2015 and 2016 about the need for customer-focused improvements that would allow for seamless, integrated mobility. Transportation policy organizations and operators alike identified integrated ticketing and better data connectivity as essential to future ridership growth and competitiveness of public transportation.

As an initial step, California undertook an examination of how certain countries in the European Union (EU) had gone about planning and implementing integrated travel to better understand their efforts, avoid known pitfalls, and learn best practices that might help the State’s program succeed. The key objectives of the Phase 1 research were to:

  • Observe the methodology and process that each entity and their stakeholders have followed;
  • Assess the extent to which the programs have evolved, noting core policy, relationships, business models, and reach across multiple modes;
  • Compare and contrast the core themes from each initiative;
  • Outline how California might approach the implementation of an integrated travel program that meets State policy objectives;
  • Recommend next steps in the advancement of a California plan and carry forward with State approval.

The EU aims to establish a system of “sustainable mobility” by improving the competitiveness of environmentally friendly modes, and by creating integrated transportation networks and fair conditions of competition between modes. Since 2001, all major European transport policy documents propose integrated ticketing as a high-priority measure that helps to increase passenger intermodality and the attractiveness of public transport, and thus encourages travelers to use more environmentally friendly modes of transport. Most European countries have an e-ticketing system at least in their capital today, but they are limited to some extent by legacy systems, or by the fact that systems often do not use the same technical standards and can thus only be used for one particular mode of transport. While nationwide integrated travel solutions are becoming more commonplace, there is no all-encompassing solution for Europe.

The implementation of a national (or in California’s case, statewide) solution would be a complex process requiring the synchronized activity of diverse participants. Besides technological characteristics, legal and economic aspects play a decisive role, and a large number of stakeholders, with partly diverging interests, would be involved in the implementation of such an effort. A fully integrated, multimodal travel solution is provided by a network of heterogeneous actors and only their full commitment, cooperation, and interaction will lead to meaningful results.

Implementation Process Stakeholders

Source: Mobil. TUM 2014 ‘Sustainable Mobility in Metropolitan Regions.’

Process

  • During the summer of 2017, interviews were conducted with five European entities responsible for implementation of integrated travel within their respective regions. These were:
    • Transport for London (TfL), London, UK
    • Entur, Norway
    • Samtrafiken, Sweden
    • NS, Netherlands
    • ZVV, Switzerland

    All five entities had embarked on travel card programs, while most offered mobile apps for either ticketing, travel planning, or both. The objective of the interviews was to understand:

    • key drivers of each initiative;
    • policies and processes for political and technological execution;
    • successes/failures, outcome, and impact;
    • lessons learned, and common themes between countries.

Outcome

Each region has its own specific challenges related to policy, governance, implementation, and growth of an integrated travel program, and these are documented in the Phase 1 report presentations. In summary, 12 key themes emerged from the research and interviews undertaken:

Source: Cal-ITP European Research, 2017

In 2016, some of the state’s early recipients of Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP) funding expressed a desire to better integrate key elements of the transportation system. The LOSSAN Rail Corridor Agency (managing agency for the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner service) had expressed an interest in better integrated rail schedules and services among multiple rail operators, and also an interest in offering a transit transfer program so that riders could continue their journey for free or at discounted rates on participating transit services. Metrolink was working on mobile ticketing and the ability to offer seamless travel even on the gated parts of the Los Angeles MetroRail system. And the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCJPA) expressed an interest in both developing a timetable with optimized connections and identifying the best way to modernize its approach to mobile ticketing and transit transfers.

Growing out of the CCJPA integration project that focused on improving mobile ticketing and transit transfers, the Cal-ITP effort emerged as an opportunity to conduct focused research on integrated travel initiatives. Findings were documented and shared with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA), state intercity rail operators, and a number of stakeholders in the fall of 2017 and is now referred to as Phase 1 of Cal-ITP.

When it became clear that the findings of Phase 1 were congruent with the themes present in the Draft 2018 California State Rail Plan, the agencies that had reviewed the research identified the need to receive broader input on the concepts so that what appeared so interesting in the European context could be properly interpreted in a California context.

In late 2017, Caltrans provided supplemental funding to CCJPA for Cal-ITP Phase 2 to facilitate a multi-agency initiative to research the viability of a unified mobility solution that could enable California residents and visitors to plan and pay for travel anywhere in the state. A key element of that research was determined to be a statewide conference where core concepts, findings, and options could be presented for feedback, and to gauge the level of support from transit agencies and service providers of all sizes. The findings of that conference—which was conducted May 1–2, 2018, at the University of California, Davis—are available in the Phase 2 Report.

Phase 2

CalSTA—in conjunction with Caltrans, CCJPA, and local, regional, and State partners—began Phase 2 of Cal-ITP to research, plan, and propose a statewide framework for multimodal transport interoperability that could be presented to California transportation agencies at a two-day symposium.

Key themes that emerged from Cal-ITP Phase 1 research included the importance of policy, governance, inter-agency agreements, harmonized standards, and open data. In more recent years, consumer adoption of smartphones has driven a move to mobile-based trip planning and payments for many users, while new mobility service providers have introduced travel alternatives with the potential to complement public transit for provision of first- and last-mile services. In almost all cases, successful integrated travel initiatives have been coordinated and driven by a central State or regional federation, with varying levels of voluntary and mandatory participation by regional and local transportation operators depending on the country.

With the completion of the initial phase and recommendations for next steps, CalSTA authorized a second Cal-ITP phase that established a formal Steering Committee and Advisory Board of industry experts to guide the Cal-ITP effort, with a focus on obtaining feedback from a wide range of California transit stakeholders so that efforts to pilot elements of integrated travel could reflect California-specific needs and requirements.

Xentrans was engaged to undertake the convening of the advisory board and to orchestrate a conference to take place in May 2018, bringing together key stakeholders from state agencies, regional and local transport operators, shared mobility providers, and the academic and business communities. The event offered participants an opportunity to learn more about integrated travel concepts, ask questions of leading European and North American agencies who have deployed multimodal travel planning and payment platforms, and provide feedback and help shape progress on a statewide solution for integrated journey planning and ticketing.

The conference, which received a 92% approval rating from participants, featured more than 200 attendees and speakers over a two-day agenda comprising 10 hours of keynotes, sessions, and panels. When polled, 78% of conference attendees who responded were “very sure” that California transportation agencies should work collaboratively on a framework for statewide integrated trip planning and fare payment.

Upon completion of the second phase, the state began planning for a third phase, including the awarding of funding through the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP) to CCJPA to implement a multi-agency demonstration.