Together with its partners, FAIRTIQ has been nominated for the Transport Ticketing Global Award in the new category ‘Cross-Border Ticketing’. FAIRTIQ sees this nomination as more than recognition. It reflects a shared achievement and shows that seamless cross-border travel is no longer limited to long-distance rail. It is now becoming operational reality in local and regional public transport.
When networks connect but fares do not
Public transport connects regions and economies. Fare systems, however, often stop at national borders.
Even in highly digital markets, cross-border journeys can require multiple apps, separate accounts and repeated check-ins and check-outs. This creates friction for passengers and structural complexity for operators and authorities. Revenue allocation, governance and system integration become difficult to align.
The Euregio Maas-Rhine region illustrates this challenge clearly. Journeys regularly cross three national borders. While joint ticket offers improved access in the past, they did not deliver full interoperability or a seamless daily experience. As digitalisation raised expectations, complexity remained.
The question became clear. How can we enable seamless cross-border travel without dismantling established national systems?
National fare sovereignty meets international simplicity
Many cross-border initiatives introduce new bilateral products or require additional physical infrastructure. Others attempt to extend one national scheme into another country. These approaches can increase operational overhead and complicate governance structures.
Mobile pay-as-you-go offers a different path.
ACCEPT Institute and a strong consortium of operators and authorities, introduced an international router layer that connects existing national fare schemes end to end. Established pricing back offices remain in place. There is no new overarching ticket product and no additional validators required. This significantly reduces implementation costs and enables a faster time to market. Operators can deliver seamless travel without large-scale infrastructure investments.
Passengers use a single app and start and end their journey with one swipe, without booking tickets in advance. Mobile pay-as-you-go generates one postpaid payment for the entire cross-border trip. In the background, each national pricing system calculates its share according to its own rules. The results are combined into one transparent passenger price.
The principle is straightforward. Preserve national fare sovereignty for operators and authorities, while delivering international simplicity for passengers.
The router of ACCEPT is open for others to join. Roel Testroote, Director of ACCEPT:
“We are a not-for-profit: for us, it’s all about sharing. Our mission is to simplify public travel: move without borders.”
From concept to live operation
This approach has been live since October 2024 on the Cologne to Aachen to Maastricht rail corridor, linking Germany and the Netherlands.
Passengers travel across Arriva, DB Regio and National Express services with one swipe. Travellers use their trusted app to move across borders and within neighbouring countries. Today, more than 25,000 users generate over 150,000 cross-border journeys annually on this corridor.
“Joining forces in a border region pays off: by linking national systems we are breaking down barriers in public transport and making seamless travel easier than ever before for passengers.”
Dr. Dominik Elsmann
Head of Cross-Border Public Transport at AVV
Beyond the technical integration, the deployment demonstrates that multinational alignment is achievable. Authorities, operators and technology partners have collaborated within existing governance and revenue frameworks. The result is a fully operational cross-border mobile pay-as-you-go service.
“We are proud to have achieved this together, ensuring a seamless experience for travelers. Especially in border regions where different systems and fare structures converge.”
Chellie Soons, Regional Director Arriva Limburg
A scalable blueprint for Europe
This project is not a pilot searching for validation. It is a blueprint designed for expansion.
While it enables seamless cross-border travel in local and regional public transport, its relevance goes further. The same approach can connect non-integrated fare systems within countries and across regions. Wherever tariff schemes meet, an international router layer can enable integrated travel from A to B with a single swipe, without replacing existing systems.
The TTG nomination recognises this collective effort by ACCEPT Institute, Arriva, Aachener Verkehrsverbund (AVV), DB Regio, go.Rheinland, National Express, SNCB, Translink and FAIRTIQ, to rethink what cross-border ticketing can look like.
One journey. Two countries. One simple mobile pay-as-you-go experience.
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