The challenge
NAM was formed to develop a sustainable, integrated and accessible public transport system in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. This huge region spans the west and southwest of Metropolitan France and has six million residents. Driven by the deepening climate and energy crises, NAM aims to modernize public transport, and motivate more people to choose sustainable transport modes.
With multiple public transport authorities operating transport networks in the region, multi-stage journeys using different mobility providers were fragmented and complex. To encourage more sustainable travel, NAM aims to dramatically improve the passenger experience, with simple, convenient fare payments enabling smoother journeys.
Project goals
- Seamless interoperability: Account-based ticketing supports contactless EMV payments, digital wallets and QR codes, allowing passengers to use a single card, bank card, or app across different transport networks as they travel around the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.
- Multimodal integration: A key goal is to connect urban, suburban, and rural networks, enabling passengers to plan and pay for journeys across multiple modes of transport (buses, trains, carpooling, cycling, car sharing) through a single mobility account.
- Simple passenger experience: NAM's ambition for its new ticketing solution is to simplify boarding and speed-up travel. By enabling passengers to get on board with a simple tap or scan of their chosen travel token, dwell times can be dramatically reduced.
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Sustainability: Digitizing ticketing and payments is part of NAM's plan to phase out paper tickets, reducing waste and litter. In addition, by removing some of the major barriers to using public transport (complex fares, multiple fare payment systems), it hopes more people will choose to use public transport instead of private cars.
The solution
Open architecture: Kuba's modular account-based ticketing platform is built with an open architecture. It connects seamlessly to Kuba's fare validators, driver consoles and mobile app, but can also integrate with third-party hardware and mobile apps. The scalable, cloud-based platform is ideal to meet the demands of the interoperable, regional system NAM envisions.
Multi-operator: The sophisticated back office set-up enables multi-operator participation in a unified ticketing scheme. The system calculates fare revenue and apportions the correct amount to the parties involved. To handle open payments, it is integrated to a merchant acquirer, eZyness, a subsidiary of La Banque Postale; and to payment service provider Littlepay.
Multi-token acceptance: NAM has elected to use Kuba's back office, along with its fare validators, portable validation devices and ticket vending machines. The combined solution will enable passengers to travel across multiple transport networks in Nouvelle-Aquitaine using their preferred digital or contactless payment option. They simply tap a validator to get on board using a Modalis smart card, contactless credit or debit card, digital wallet, or QR code (on the Modalis app, or a ticket bought through retailers and vending machines).
The results
Since the first launch in Guéret in 2024, and subsequent launches in the months that have followed, NAM has seen strong evidence that the new account-based ticketing system meets passengers' approval, enabling a speedy boarding experience, and a convenient way to pay with the card or device they carry everywhere. A simple tap takes them where they want to be.
Since launch, 6.6 million users have validated their travel using the account-based ticketing system. Adoption is growing fast with >80% growth seen from January to May 2025. Limoges has seen the strongest uptake of open-loop payments, with on average 50k EMV validations each month, since launching in January 2025.
With the solution now tried and tested, and the latest roll-outs in Périgueux, Tulle and COBAN completed smoothly, more cities are lining-up to join the initiative.
Brive and TIU intercity buses for the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, are preparing to go live in 2025. Plans are in the advanced stages for bringing the regional rail network, SNCF Group's TER Nouvelle-Aquitaine, into the solution.
We're confident that NAM's ambition of delivering a seamless, multimodal mobility throughout the region is right on track.
Says Julien Fezard, who leads this project in Kuba France:
Enabling account-based ticketing and open payments across the region is an epic project. It's amazing to play a part in delivering seamless payments on such a scale.
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