Event
NEORide Annual Meeting & Summit 2026
The annual gathering of NEORide, the multi-state transit council behind the EZfare regional fare payment system.
NEORide is a council of governments that lets transit agencies pool their buying power and run shared projects. The most visible is EZfare, a regional mobile fare-payment app used across member systems in Ohio and neighboring states. The 2026 Annual Meeting and Summit is September 8-9 at the Hyatt Regency Cincinnati, with Cincinnati Metro and TANK hosting.
Why it matters for the data layer
NEORide is a working answer to the interoperability problem, reached through cooperation instead of a single vendor. Getting one fare app to work across a dozen independent agencies means agreeing on data: fare products, account structures, and the interfaces between back offices, all while each agency keeps setting its own fares and policies. Members also meet one-on-one with the vendors NEORide holds under contract, which is where the integration details actually get settled.
The summit is aimed at the small and mid-size operators who cannot each build this alone, which is most of the country. If you think about fare data or regional coordination, it is a useful field report on what holds together across agency lines.