For Release: May 15, 2015
Contact: Bryan Jungwirth, Director of Public Affairs & Government Relations
bjungwirth@vre.org
(703) 838-5416 office
(571) 238-9084 cell
Contact: Mac Brown, GlobeSherpa
mbrown@globesherpa.com
(503) 680-6222 office
ALEXANDRIA, VA – May, 15, 2015 –Virginia Railway Express (VRE) made riding the commuter rail system easier today with the introduction of VRE Mobile, VRE’s new mobile ticketing app. VRE is the first transit system in the greater Washington D.C. area to offer riders a mobile app for paying their fares. The app, powered by GlobeSherpa, lets riders easily and conveniently buy and use tickets and passes right on their smartphone and is available for free from the iTunes App Store and Google Play. Paper tickets will still be available as an option.
“VRE Mobile is part of our ongoing effort to make the commuting experience more convenient and today we take a significant leap forward for our passengers,” said VRE Chief Executive Officer Doug Allen. “We are excited to get VRE Mobile into the hands of our passengers, adding a new easy-to-use option to buy and use fares.”
The new VRE Mobile app will allow passengers to:
- Purchase, store, use, and validate Single Ride, Day Pass, Five Day, Ten Trip and Monthly Passes right from the smartphone removing the need to keep track of paper tickets
- Use SmartBenefitsSM to purchase tickets and passes
- Use disability, senior and youth fares within the app
- Use multiple tickets for multiple riders from a single smartphone
- Split payment between two credit cards, or a credit card and SmartBenefitsSM account
- Create an account and store information for future purchases and manage account information and purchase tickets that appear instantly on the phone through www.vre.org
- Eliminates the need to stop at a VRE vendor location or a VRE ticket vending machine
- Purchase Amtrak Step-up tickets for use with multi-ride VRE tickets on select Amtrak trains
VRE partnered with GlobeSherpa to create a mobile ticketing app that's innovative and simple to use. With GlobeSherpa’s proven mobile ticketing system, VRE is delivering industry-leading innovation to its riders at a fraction of the cost of traditional fare collection technology, improve operations through real-time reporting and geo-location data, and make happier passengers by allowing them to purchase and validate VRE fares on their smartphones.
“We are excited to provide VRE with an intuitive mobile ticketing application that allows passengers to purchase their tickets and passes with just a few taps on their phone,” said Nat Parker, GlobeSherpa CEO and co-founder. “Making it easier to ride VRE while reducing the cost of fare collections is a win-win for the rider and the agency and GlobeSherpa looks forward to bringing this technology to other agencies in the greater Washington D.C. area.”
VRE Mobile is designed to provide future interoperability with regional partner fare products, including WMATA’s SmartBenefitsSM, Amtrak and other transit providers.
To learn more about VRE Mobile, please visit www.vre.org/mobile
About VRE
VRE is the tenth largest commuter rail service in the U.S. and is a transportation partnership of the Northern Virginia and Potomac & Rappahannock Transportation Commissions. VRE’s mission is to provide safe, cost effective, accessible, reliable, convenient, and comfortable commuter-oriented rail passenger service. It serves northern Virginia and Washington D.C. and its offices are based in Alexandria, VA. Visit our website at: www.vre.org
About GlobeSherpa
GlobeSherpa provides a secure, mobile payment platform for transit systems interested in moving to open payments, open data, and mobile fare collection with minimal infrastructure investment. GlobeSherpa is developing next generation mobile technologies using NFC and Bluetooth Low Energy and is integrating those with our robust back-office business intelligence software to reduce the cost of fare collections and improve operations for transit. For more information about GlobeSherpa, please visit www.globesherpa.com