# July 2026 roundup: open-loop fares, the NTD's new rules, and MDS 2.1

> What moved on the transportation data layer from mid-June to mid-July 2026: World Cup open-loop fare launches, new National Transit Database reporting rules, MDS 2.1 in preview, and AI landing in agency software.

Published 2026-07-16 by Nick Sawinyh.
Roundup in Agency IT.
Canonical: https://its-feed.com/articles/roundup-2026-07/
Keywords: transit data roundup, open loop fare payment, National Transit Database, mobility data specification, MDS 2.1, AI in transit

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A monthly scan of what actually moved on the data and technology layer of transportation.
This edition runs from roughly mid-June to mid-July 2026: a wave of open-loop fare launches
timed to the World Cup, a quiet but structural change in what the National Transit Database
collects, the next version of the Mobility Data Specification going to preview, and the
first agentic-AI products aimed squarely at transit operations.

## Open-loop fare payment arrives on a World Cup deadline

Los Angeles Metro switched on contactless open-loop payment, so riders can now tap a credit
or debit card, phone, or watch directly at fare gates and on buses. Until now a TAP card was
the only way to pay, and [Metro rolled the change out ahead of the FIFA World Cup and the
2028 Olympics](https://www.metro.net/about/la-metro-debuts-new-ways-to-plan-pay-for-your-transit-trip/),
the events that put its fare system under a hard deadline.

Kansas City moved the same month, in the other direction on fares themselves. [KCATA brought
bus fares back on June 1](https://www.kcata.org/news/bus-fares-return-june-1-2026) after
several years of free rides, and did it as a cashless, tap-to-pay-only system. RideKC pairs
it with automated fare capping, so a rider who taps the same card [stops paying once they
hit $4.00 a day, $20.00 a week, or $62.50 a month](https://ridekc.org/fares).

The real change here is in the back office rather than the reader on the bus. Open-loop
moves fare logic to an account-based system that settles bank-card taps and applies caps
after the fact, which is also why the GTFS schedule spec recently added a field to flag when
a feed's service accepts contactless bank cards. Expect more of these through the fall as
agencies race the same mega-event calendar.

## The National Transit Database quietly changes what it collects

Less visible, and arguably more structural, the FTA's [reporting changes for report years
2025 and 2026](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/07/10/2025-12813/national-transit-database-reporting-changes-and-clarifications-for-report-years-2025-and-2026)
add two things worth an operator's attention. Agencies now report cybersecurity events to
the NTD, and the database begins collecting GTFS shapefile data alongside annual submissions
to improve route and trip-planning information. Data collection for the 2025 report year
closes in mid-July 2026, with the annual data products due out in October.

The shapefile change is the tell. The NTD report an agency files and the GTFS feed it
already publishes are starting to converge, which is a small but real step toward one
canonical description of a system's service instead of two that drift apart.

## MDS 2.1 goes to preview

The Open Mobility Foundation [previewed the next version of the Mobility Data
Specification](https://www.openmobilityfoundation.org/whats-coming-mds/), MDS 2.1. It is not
released yet, so this is a look ahead rather than a launch. The additions track where shared
mobility is going: a new endpoint for crashes and incidents, fuller support for goods
delivery including sidewalk robots, and clearer handling of robotaxis and other autonomous
for-hire vehicles. OMF says MDS is now in use across more than 1,200 cities and 200
operators, so even a point release moves a lot of integrations.

The same desk also published a read on digital-curb infrastructure out of Montréal, a
reminder that the curb is becoming its own data problem, with its own specification next to
MDS.

## AI shows up in the agency software stack

Two signals landed close together. Optibus [announced what it calls the first AI agent built
specifically for transit operations](https://www.metro-magazine.com/news/optibus-launches-ai-agent-designed-specifically-for-public-transit-operations),
covering planning, scheduling, dispatch, and real-time work. Read the "first" as marketing
and the direction as real: agentic AI is being productized for the software agencies already
run.

On the more grounded side, APTA released an [AI and machine-learning primer with guidance
briefs](https://www.apta.com/press-release/apta-highlights-public-transit-industry-innovation-releases-new-artificial-intelligence-primer-and-guidance-briefs/)
that documents deployments already in service, from predictive maintenance on the MTA's bus
fleet to camera-based bus-lane enforcement at AC Transit. The primer is the more useful
artifact, because it separates what agencies have actually put into production from what
vendors are pitching.

## On the calendar

Two on-lane gatherings are worth a hold. MobilityData's International Mobility Data Summit is
in Montréal on September 22-23, the room where the GTFS and GBFS specs get argued in person,
and MOVE America follows in Detroit the week after. Both are on our [events
calendar](https://its-feed.com/events/).

A note on shelf life: these are mid-July 2026 snapshots. MDS 2.1 is still in preview, a
vendor "first" is a claim and not a fact, and fare rollouts slip. The direction each item
points is steadier than any single date here.

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Source: ITS Feed, https://its-feed.com/articles/roundup-2026-07/
ITS Feed is an independent editorial site on the data and technology layer of transportation, published by the team at Veodyn. Figures trace to the sources linked inline.
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