News

Austin's MetroRail solves its EMV liability shift problem

April 22, 2016

Rather than spend $4.6 million to upgrade the 22 ticket kiosks in its system, Capital Metro in Austin, Texas, simply decided that MetroRail ticket sales will be cash-only by the end of the year.

"The cost analysis we did over a five-year period showed that the cost to upgrade would be nearly equal to the revenue we would receive during that time span," CapMetro spokesperson Francine Pares told NBC news affiliate KXAN.

CapMetro will still take payment via its stored-value card. Metro riders can also pay their fare (via credit card) using the CapMetro smartphone app.

Since its launch in January 2014, the app has been downloaded more than 220,000 times and has sold more than $4 million in tickets, the report said.