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Amex contactless cards accepted at PATCO gates
11 Jul 2012

American Express (Amex) contactless smart cards are now accepted at all Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO) gates and parking terminals.

This is part of the open payment programme between Cubic Transportation Systems, Incorporated and PATCO.

Cubic Transportation Systems is an integrator of payment and information technology and services for travel systems.

This new development means that people have more options when it comes to making secure transit payments to PATCO.

Steve Shewmaker, president of Cubic Transportation Systems Worldwide, said: "The expansion of the PATCO programme is enabling Cubic to gain tremendous technical information on deploying and operating contactless payment systems in other transit systems."

He went on to say that the people of New Jersey and Pennsylvania who travel through PATCO gates and terminals are "helping to design the transit payments systems of the future".

Patricia Partelow, vice president of new product development for American Express' Global Network Business, said that contactless smartcards are increasing in popularity.

"We are excited to partner with PATCO and Cubic on their contactless transit programme," she added.

Ms Partelow explained that those with Amex contactless cards will benefit from being able to make faster and more convenient payments.

This is a sentiment shared by Ben Snowman, director at global pricing, strategy and marketing consultants Simon-Kucher & Partners.

Research by the firm reveals that paying by contactless technology can cut around 15 seconds off a sale.

The research found that it takes 12 seconds to complete a contactless transaction, but 27 seconds for a chip-and-pin payment.

Recently, the contactless payments threshold increased from £15 to £20, which according to Retail Week, means that 45 per cent of retail chip-and-pin payments can now be made in this way.

Mr Snowman said that because of this, the "migration of chip-and-pin payments to contactless must be taken seriously".