Public Mobility Integrated Trip Planning, Ticketing, and Payment

Challenge Framing

As fans, tourists, and residents move across city, county, and state lines to attend games and fan festivals, they will most likely use multiple travel modes and systems—light rail, buses, micromobility, rideshare, and personal vehicles. Under the current patchwork of modes, jurisdictions, and mobility solutions, riders are forced to download, maintain profiles in, and toggle between various apps and ticketing platforms that rarely communicate with one another or share uniform standards.

This fragmentation is further complicated by data governance challenges, which can result in discrepancies between transit agency websites and third-party trip-planning apps. Although numerous Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions attempt to aggregate real-time transit information, they often fail to secure authoritative data directly from agencies or infrastructure owners.

• Trip Planning - Riders must piece together journeys across multiple providers and agencies, dealing with fragmented apps and uncoordinated systems that make trip planning cumbersome, and may provide conflicting or incomplete travel information—overlooking closed stations, misestimating travel times, or ignoring “first-mile” and “last-mile” elements such as walking from a parking lot to a venue entrance or locating an available bike share station.

• Ticketing - Many ticketing platforms are mode- or agency-specific, requiring separate accounts or profiles. This lack of a single, integrated solution increases friction for visitors unfamiliar with local transit systems and discourages seamless travel across different modes.

• Payment - Payment processes can vary significantly from one transportation option to another. Users face multiple registration and payment requirements, which can drive them toward more straightforward—but often more congesting—options like personal vehicles or rideshare.

• Data Governance & Real-Time Updates - Discrepancies in transit schedules between official agency websites and third-party applications highlight a gap in data governance. Without cohesive standards or reliable real-time updates, travelers risk following incomplete or outdated route information.

• Impacts on Local Economies & Transportation Networks - Fragmented trip planning can unintentionally steer visitors away from local businesses located along less-publicized routes. When transit systems are confusing or inaccessible, more people opt to drive or take ride-hail or taxi services, increasing congestion, emissions, and parking demands.

Audiences impacted include the following:

• Visitors / FIFA Event Attendees - Rely on dependable, user-friendly trip-planning tools to avoid delays, confusion, and missed experiences. Fragmentation and inaccurate data can leave them lost or cause them to miss critical events.

• Local Businesses - Benefit from efficient, well-advertised transit routes that drive foot traffic and visibility near their storefronts. When trip planners bypass or downplay certain routes, businesses along those paths can lose out on valuable event-driven revenue.

• Residents - Feel the strain of increased vehicle congestion, emissions, and competition for limited parking when visitors avoid public transportation. Poor interoperability among transit options further limits the ability of locals to seamlessly get around during busy event periods.

Viable solutions to this challenge will enable seamless, integrated trip planning, ticketing, and payment across multiple jurisdictions and systems so that fans traveling to World Cup games and fan fest events can easily navigate various public mobility options with a single, user-friendly platform. By accurately incorporating all aspects of the journey—including walking times from parking lots or drop-off zones and real-time congestion information—this solution will provide transparent, reliable comparisons among travel modes, ultimately promoting a shift toward transit. Doing so will reduce congestion, shorten overall travel times, and help ensure on-time performance for public transportation.

In addition, the integrated platform will support local communities and businesses, guiding event-goers through corridors with small businesses and offering incentives to explore those areas rather than bypass them. Easily adjusting transit payments and providing discounts to riders will be critical for ensuring local impact and adoption. Residents will also benefit from clear, multilingual communications and tools to avoid high-traffic zones when desired.

Crucially, the solution must build on existing infrastructure and systems (including FIFA’s platforms), remain cost-effective, and be deployable with minimal new staffing requirements for city, transit, and vendor partners. By addressing these needs, the 2026 World Cup Cities Innovation Cohort will leave a lasting legacy of improved, equitable, and sustainable transportation well beyond the tournament.

Key success measures include the following:

• Mode shift and Increased transit ridership

• User experience and adoption

• On-time performance

• Easy, low-cost integration

• Interoperability and open standards compliance

• Scalability and long-term viability