Daruma Tech partnered with South Florida Regional Transportation Authority to Create a Ticket-Purchasing Functionality for the Tri-Rail Transportation App

When the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority reached out to Daruma Tech for help developing a mobile app for riders of its Tri-Rail commuter train, Daruma Tech delivered. The app was a success—pre-pandemic, it boasted 20,000 monthly users. Recently Tri-Rail asked Daruma Tech to update the app and add in-app ticketing functionality to further enhance the rider experience.

Client Overview

South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA) is responsible for public transportation projects in Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach Counties in
Florida. Its Tri-Rail commuter train service has an average weekday ridership of 15,000 riders and serves a population of 6.2 million residents. Its mission is” To coordinate, develop and implement, in cooperation with all appropriate levels of government, private enterprise and citizens at-large in the community, a viable regional transportation system in South Florida that endeavors to meet the desires and needs for the movement of people, goods, and services.”

Client: South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFTRA)
Location: Pompano Beach, Florida
Industry: Public Transportation
Daruma Tech Services: Technical consulting, requirements gathering, front-end and back-end app development, UI/UX design, regular updates and maintenance.

Challenge

The popular Tri-Rail mobile app allows riders to plan their trips, track the arrival of their trains, and get real-time notification of delays or schedule changes. To make commuting even more efficient, SFRTA wanted to add in-app ticket-purchasing functionality so commuters could buy passes and tickets right on their phones. This meant the app had to be able to securely collect and store users’ payment information and purchase histories. And most importantly, it had to be
simple enough for users to navigate while on the go.

Discovery

To keep development as cost-effective as possible, SFRTA and Daruma Tech worked with Miami-Dade County to adapt their mobile payment integration platform for use on the Tri-Rail app. Offering a seamless and friction-free user experience was a top priority, so we coordinated with SFRTA to create and implement a paperless ticketing system—with the app, all users need to do is buy their tickets or passes and go.

Solution & Implementation

Daruma Tech built a user-friendly integrated ticketing system with the following features:

• A design that lets users toggle seamlessly between the app’s train schedule and ticket purchasing screens, letting them quickly purchase the tickets or passes they need.
• Secure storage of users’ payment information to make shopping fast and easy.
• A virtual wallet that keeps active passes and tickets in one safe place.
• Images and QR codes for active passes that users simply need to show or scan to use.

Technologies used:

• Native Technologies – used iOS and Android Native Mobile Development frameworks written in Swift and Java.
• Third-Party APIs – integrated with ETA Transit’s SPOT APIs to provide accurate ETA and GPS location of train vehicles, and service alerts.