NEW York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has contracted Cubic Transportation Systems to replace its iconic MetroCard ticketing system with a new contactless system similar to that already deployed in London.

TRANSPORT for London (TfL) has awarded a contract to Cubic Transportation Systems to continue to provide ticketing and fare collection on London's rail and bus networks.

TRIALS have begun in Sydney of the new Opal contactless public transport smartcard system, which is being installed by the Cubic-led Pearl consortium under a $A 370m ($US 398m) contract awarded in May 2010.

Mobile phone ticketing is projected to expand greatly over the next few years. Kamran Yazdanjoo, director of open payments at Cubic Transportation Systems, considers the advantages of this technology and its impact on passengers using future transit services.