Event
Best of the Midwest Transit Conference & Expo 2026
OPTA's annual transit conference and expo in Columbus, framed as a Midwest gathering rather than an Ohio-only meeting.
The Ohio Public Transit Association holds its annual conference and expo November 16-18 in Columbus. OPTA frames it as a multi-state Midwest gathering rather than an Ohio-only meeting, drawing agency staff, ODOT transit office staff, board members, advocates and exhibiting vendors. No venue was named on the association’s page, and the session program had not been published at the time of writing.
Why it matters for the data layer
Ohio agencies drove the regional fare and trip-planning work behind NEORide’s EZfare, and that is the reason to pay attention here. The Midwest framing pulls in Indiana, Michigan and Kentucky operators who face the same question Ohio already answered once: whether to buy a fare system alone or share one across a dozen agencies, and who then owns the resulting trip and payment data.
Small and mid-sized operators do most of the talking at a state association meeting, which is where shared procurement either works or quietly falls apart.