Estonian public transport technology company Ridango has been recognized as the best developer of a ticket system and contactless payment at the world’s most renowned public transport forum, Transport Ticketing Global. Held in London, the event discusses the future of smart ticketing & mobility, gathering over 1,000 industry leaders.
Powering the digital transformation
Ridango won in the Best Smart Ticketing Programme category. It highlights a public transport operator/agency and their technology partners that have launched a successful smart ticketing program serving at least 200,000 trips each day within the last two years.
The award was given to Ridango for its contactless payment solution that was launched last year for ground public transport in Kyiv, Ukraine. Since its full-scale launch, the solution has been used tens of millions of times, allowing the Ukrainian people to continue their daily activities even in war conditions. Currently, it validates one million trips per day and 29-30 million trips per month, which is half as much as before the war.
Working under extreme pressure
Ridango has worked with the Kyiv city government since 2017, but last year was a true test of this long-term cooperation. Due to safety concerns, public transport in Kyiv stopped on February 24 and resumed on May 9.
Thanks to Ridango’s solutions, passengers in the Ukrainian capital can contactlessly validate their tickets by waving a bank card, phone, or smartwatch, as well as a proprietary travel card. The hardware works in buses, trams, and trolleybuses, helping Ukraine towards a better future and replacing the old, cash-dependent system.
Ridango won in a category where different solutions from Singapore, New York, Latin America, and elsewhere applied, but it’s not the first win for the company.
Ridango validator in Tallinn
Last year, the company won the Digital Champion title, which recognises projects that have made a significant contribution to updating the digital journey of passengers and making access to public transport and ticket information more accessible to everyone. Ridango earned this award for the development of a joint ticket for Tallinn, Tartu, and Helsinki.
Founded in 2009, Ridango solutions powers public transport in Estonia and about 30 other countries around the world. “The ambitious goal is to become the world’s leading provider of intelligent transportation systems for the public transportation sector by 2026,” said Erki Lipre, Ridango’s chairman of the board.
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