Flytoget and Vayapay: Revolutionary Transit Payment Innovation Delivers Seamless Omnichannel Experience

Flytoget, Norway’s airport express train operator, has successfully upgraded its sales channels by implementing the Vayapay Smart Payment Platform, completing the roll-out that began in 2024. Vayapay is XPP’s omnichannel payment platform for urban mobility. XPP is a payment product provider that modernises payments across public transit, higher education, corporate enterprises, financial institutions, and unattended services. The implementation was delivered in partnership with Elavon, one of the world’s leading acquirers. 

This groundbreaking implementation marks the world’s first omnichannel payment solution for public transport, allowing passengers to flow freely between sales channels. Whether the customer uses a card, mobile device, or watch to buy travel rights—on vending machines, online platforms, apps, or simply by tapping at a gate or validator—the solution ensures the payment is recognised seamlessly across all channels and devices. The project, partially funded by the Norwegian government as a research initiative, delivers a vision that had been eight years in the making. 

A Partnership Built on Innovation 

“We’ve been working towards this solution for over ten years,” said Heidi Hansen, Head of Distribution and Innovation at Flytoget. “One of the biggest reasons for people calling our customer service was to understand why, if they registered their card in the app but then wanted to tap the same card at the gate with their watch, the system didn’t recognise them. We saw the need to solve this so customers could flow freely between all channels and register their information one time only. We needed partners willing to provide the solution that could solve this, and we found that with Vayapay and Elavon.” 

The collaboration began with Flytoget’s pioneering spirit – the company introduced open-loop payments with magnetic stripe bank cards in 2003, making them one of the world’s first transit operators to offer swipe-and-go.  

Technical Innovation Meets Operational Excellence 

Vayapay enables Flytoget’s master profile, linking all purchases to the passenger’s underlying funding account. Flytoget’s customers can retrieve receipts, and view offers and entitlements across all channels, thereby solving the frustration of having to navigate multiple service pages. The service also still caters to anonymous travel as well, if passengers so choose, further enabling Flytoget to provide a customer-centric seamless travel experience. 

“We built a payment platform that goes beyond what today’s payment service providers offer to public transport operators,” explained Wido Beekman, Chief Commercial Officer at Vayapay. “A platform that sees not only the transaction itself, but also the source for funding the transaction, and can share this information with operators to strengthen customer relationships and create more frictionless passenger experiences while staying PCI compliant. Working with Elavon made this possible.” 

Elavon’s expertise proved crucial, as it achieved one of the fastest Level 3 EMV certifications on record, completed in just three weeks. 

“Getting involved early in the conversation was key,” said Cillian Maher, Head of Emerging Verticals at Elavon. “We worked together from the innovation stage rather than trying to backpedal on existing ideas. This gave us access to a full omnichannel transit solution.”  

Real-World Impact 

The system is live across Flytoget’s 23-train fleet, serving over 5.3 million annual passengers. Flytoget maintains a 97% customer satisfaction rate and has achieved 70% public transport modal share for Oslo Airport access – one of the world’s highest rates. 

The partnership was recently featured at Transport Ticketing Global (TTG) and Transport Ticketing North America (TTNA), where industry experts highlighted it as a model for how collaboration drives innovation in mobility payments. 

With the Vayapay Flytoget Payment Platform now live, Norway combines innovation and seamless access to set a global standard for smart mobility payments.