BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 3, 2025--
Modeshift, a leading provider of cloud-based fare collection, announces a strategic partnership with Canadian intelligent transportation technology leader ITSMAX Solutions Inc. Together, the companies are launching new validating fareboxes and a seamless deployment and maintenance program, which is fully integrated with Modeshift’s complete, 360-degree fare collection platform.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250603278215/en/
Legacy fare systems have long burdened agencies with unreliable hardware, sluggish deployments, poor customer service that leaves them waiting days or weeks for support and siloed, proprietary software that’s difficult to maintain or integrate. Often built before today’s Internet of Things (IoT) standards, these outdated systems can’t easily communicate with one another, making agencies vulnerable to disruptions whenever one component fails or updates.
The Modeshift/ITSMAX partnership addresses these challenges by combining future-ready validating fareboxes with a fully integrated, interoperable platform, backed by a responsive, easy-to-work-with team that delivers fast deployments, tool-free maintenance and dependable service so agencies can focus on moving riders, not fixing broken systems.
“Legacy farebox providers have built their business on outdated, inflexible systems,” said Miroslav Katsarov, CEO of Modeshift. “We’re changing that model by combining cloud-native innovation with reliable and proven hardware and finally giving agencies a modern option that can handle every form of payment, provide real-time data and reduce operating costs. This partnership with ITSMAX is about giving transit systems choice, adaptability and control.”
Fast operation and easy maintenance are central to the design of the new validating fareboxes. Designed for quick, on-site serviceability, they significantly reduce system downtime and keep vehicles in operation.
The Validating Fareboxes Feature:
All major farebox components are modular and can be swapped out in minutes, minimizing the need for specialized tools or lengthy repairs. With fewer moving parts, the likelihood of mechanical failure is dramatically reduced. Problem components can be swapped out by maintenance staff allowing the vehicle to return to service immediately—while repairs can be handled off-site without disrupting daily operations.
“New intelligent transportation hardware and software solutions must be integrated, interoperable and simpler to maintain,” said Cyril Robitaille, President of ITSMAX. “We are excited to be partnering with Modeshift with whom we share this vision to deliver innovative Fare Collection solutions.”
ITSMAX Solutions’ field-proven devices will now be manufactured in the United States at a new, locally based facility, following Buy America compliance, supporting domestic job creation and reducing supply chain dependencies for U.S. transit agencies.
By adding cash fare capability with ITSMAX’s validating fareboxes, Modeshift provides a comprehensive alternative to legacy systems, empowering transit agencies of all sizes to adopt future-ready, multimodal fare collection without sacrificing ease, compliance or operational control. Combined with Modeshift’s account-based ticketing platform, mobile app, real-time passenger information system and CAD/AVL, the fareboxes advance a system that is intuitive for riders and powerful for operators.
Modeshift’s end-to-end solution can be scaled up or down to fit the needs of rural transit systems, mid-sized cities and large metropolitan agencies alike, positioning it as a new standard for cost-effective, future-ready transit infrastructure.
The new fareboxes are currently deploying with two transit agencies in the USA.
For more information, visit www.modeshift.com and www.itsmax.ca/index.php/en.
About Modeshift
Modeshift, Inc. is a technology company that helps transit agencies modernize their user-facing technology and the underlying infrastructure to improve efficiency, increase ridership and provide adequate, sustainability-oriented service. It is the only all-in-one digital mobility infrastructure platform that also gives the transit industry the tools to reduce their carbon emissions and aim for sustainability.
Our core product is Account-based Fare Collection System, based on the Microsoft Azure cloud and delivered as a service (Software as a Service – SaaS). Modeshift also provides other subsystems which complete the stack of hardware and software needed to operate a modern transit system such as Mobile ticketing, CAD/AVL and real-time passenger information.
About ITSMAX Solutions Inc.
ITSMAX Solutions Inc. is a Canadian-based leader in Intelligent Transportation Solutions. Founded in 2006 from the fusion of an IT company and a major private Canadian transit operator, ITSMAX uniquely combines the practical knowledge and systems skills to develop and manufacture transit, fare collection hardware and software. ITSMAX brings proven expertise in the development and deployment of future-proof and cost-effective hardware solutions that integrate seamlessly with modern transit platforms.
Modeshift’s new validating fareboxes, contactless validators, and mobile app offer a seamless, future-ready fare collection system, bringing flexibility and control to transit agencies and convenience to riders.
BERLIN (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. envoys arrived in Berlin on Sunday for another round of talks intended to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine as Moscow and Kyiv stuck to their sharply opposite views of a prospective peace deal.
Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian, U.S. and European officials will hold a series of meetings in Berlin. He said he will meet personally with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Berlin.
Responding to journalists’ questions in audio clips on a WhatsApp group chat, Zelenskyy emphasized the need for Ukraine to receive firm guarantees from the United States and European allies that would be similar to those offered to NATO members after the U.S. and some European countries stonewalled Ukraine’s bid to join the military alliance.
“These security guarantees are an opportunity to prevent another wave of Russian aggression,” he said. "And this is already a compromise on our part.”
Zelenskyy emphasized that any security assurances would need to be legally binding and supported by the U.S. Congress, adding that he expected an update from his team following a meeting between Ukrainian and U.S. military officials in Stuttgart.
He said that he will meet separately with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and, possibly, other European leaders later in the evening. He said he hadn’t yet received any response from the U.S. to Ukraine’s latest proposals on the peace plan.
Washington has tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded that Ukraine withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control and abandon its bid to join NATO, among the key conditions for peace — demands Kyiv has rejected.
Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told the business daily Kommersant that Russian police and national guard would stay in parts of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas even if they become a demilitarized zone under a prospective peace plan, a demand likely to be rejected by Ukraine as U.S.-led negotiations drag on.
Ushakov warned that a search for compromise could take a long time, noting that the U.S. proposals that took into account Russian demands had been “worsened” by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.
Speaking to Russian state TV in remarks broadcast Sunday, Ushakov said that “the contribution of Ukrainians and Europeans to these documents is unlikely to be constructive," warning that Moscow will “have very strong objections.”
Ushakov added that the territorial issue was actively discussed in Moscow when Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin earlier this month. “The Americans know and understand our position," he said.
Merz, who has spearheaded European efforts to support Ukraine alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said Saturday that “the decades of the ‘Pax Americana’ are largely over for us in Europe and for us in Germany as well.”
He warned that Putin's aim is “a fundamental change to the borders in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union within its borders.” “If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop,” Merz warned on Saturday during a party conference in Munich.
Putin has denied plans to restore the Soviet Union or attack any European allies.
As peace efforts continued, Russia and Ukraine exchanged another round of aerial attacks.
Ukraine’s air force said overnight Russia launched ballistic missiles and 138 attack drones at Ukraine. In its daily report, the air force said 110 had been intercepted or downed, but missile and drone hits were recorded at six locations.
Zelenskyy said Sunday that hundreds of thousands of families were still without power in the south, east and north-east regions and work was continuing to restore electricity, heat and water to multiple regions following a large-scale attack the previous night.
The Ukrainian president said that in the past week, Russia had launched over 1,500 strike drones, nearly 900 guided aerial bombs and 46 missiles of various types at Ukraine.
“Ukraine needs peace on decent terms, and we are ready to work as constructively as possible. These days will be filled with diplomacy. It’s very important that it brings results,” Zelenskyy said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 235 Ukrainian drones late Saturday and early Sunday.
In the Belgorod region, a drone injured a man and set his house ablaze in the village of Yasnye Zori, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Ukrainian drones struck an oil depot in Uryupinsk in the Volgograd region, triggering a fire, according to the regional governor, Andrei Bocharov.
In the Krasnodar region, the Ukrainian drones attacked the town of Afipsky, where an oil refinery is located. The authorities said that explosions shattered windows in residential buildings, but didn’t report any damage to the refinery.
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Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland.
Günter Sautter, left, foreign and security policy advisor to the Federal Chancellor, and former Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umjerow arrive for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine, at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)
Jared Kushner, entrepreneur and former chief advisor to President Donald Trump, arrives for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)
Ukraine's Secretary of National Security Rustem Umerov, right, and Günter Sautter, Foreign and Security Policy Advisor to Chancellor Merz meet in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Steve Witkoff, special envoy of the United States, arrives for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine, at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)
In this grab from a video provided by the Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine on Friday, Dec 12, 2025, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy records a video at the road entering of Kupiansk, Ukraine. (Press Service Of The President Of Ukraine via AP)
