Understanding the hottest mobility trends in Latin America
- By Chaix Manon
- In
In our latest Q&A blog, we speak to Luiz Fernando Portella, CNA’s CCO in Latin America, about the needs of public transport users in the region and how Calypso tools are helping to support sustainable travel, while helping to reduce fraud.
Please tell us a bit about yourself and your role.
I have worked in the public transport sector for over 30 years, both in ticketing and logistics, and fleet management. This includes six years at CNA. Over the years, we have been very active in Latin America and brought initiatives from cutting-edge technology companies to complex markets. Our challenge is to help the industry improve its knowledge, apply technical best practice and navigate sensitive political interests so that the application of solutions delivers quality services to end users.
What are the biggest trends you are seeing with public transport use in your region?
The main mode of public transport in Latin America is the bus, with some capital cities having metro lines and metropolitan trains, although these don’t tend to be as popular. There are currently no plans to expand the trains and metro setups, but there is a growing focus on the development of electric buses.
What challenges face transport networks in your region?
The biggest challenge in the region is a combination of poor technical knowledge and low investment in public transport innovations. This makes technological updates and following best practice extremely difficult.
Despite this, however, we have been able to make progress by improving the passenger perception of why a high-quality Intelligent Transport System is important, reducing travel times and expanding the types of ticketing systems that allow for closed-loop technology alongside alternatives.
Interoperable and open technologies are necessary for all payment methods to meet passenger demands. As such, different modes of payment need to be integrated and allow for tariff integration.
Yet, in most Latin American countries, there is no regulation when it comes to payment for transport, and improvements are not of the highest priority for authorities, who instead have long focused on independent, non-integrated management of modalities.
Additionally, due to a lack of financial resources, Latin American governments sadly do not have the investment capacity need to enable qualified technical teams to support technical decisions and studies that provide for long-term, integrated solutions. This creates frustration as non-interoperable systems prevail, which causes Latin America to lag behind when it comes to transport payment technology.
The main challenges we face are largely due to a lack of long-term planning. We need to develop our transport networks with a strong focus on passengers.
This is why technical innovations and applications are needed in Latin America, taking advantage of associations like CNA that champion collaboration and support the introduction of best practice.
Which Calypso standards are being used in your region?
For 20 years, CNA has championed shared technical knowledge and the benefits of open, collaborative standards. Today, Mexico and Brazil make use of Calypso specifications, technical integrations are in development and Calypso standards are being implemented.
The market is very large for cards and cell phones, which has motivated the industry to invest in Calypso, because it is an open and non-proprietary technology. Governments also show keen interest in Calypso standard, due to the need to avoid fraud and show transparency in transactions.
What is your vision on the future of mobility in your region?
In the four years following the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a rise in transport solutions that effectively deliver low travel times, a better quality of transport and fair fares.
To develop this positive change further, we need to implement the best universal public transport practices, and ensure that we are constantly updating both the hardware and software of our technology. We also need a clear public policy on mobility for each city, with a priority for those that are part of a metropolitan region, as well as a clear policy of subsidies for financing the sector.
