Pick Hub aims to go far beyond Lisbon but has Fertagus as its first major partner. Through this app, it is possible to buy train tickets but also load the Navegante pass.
While Lisbon is still waiting for a single application that centralizes all mobility options, from public transport to bike sharing systems to car rental services, solutions continue to emerge that serve this or that means of transportation. A Pick Hub is one of the most recent and allows you to travel on Fertagus with just your cell phone, but also manage and charge the pass or a Navegante card.
Released in July 2019 by the start-up Portuguese UbiriderPick Hub is an application that allows planning public transport trips, combining different modes such as train, subway, bus or boat, but the ambition is bigger. Pick Hub wants to accommodate bicycle and car sharing options and go beyond urban travel, presenting results for inter-city travel. And, in the middle of all this, it still wants to allow users to buy transportation tickets within the application.
For now, the Pick Hub allows you to see which long-distance and regional CP options exist between cities, as well as which Rodonorte services (which allows Grupo Barraqueiro, one of the app's investors) are available, for example, to get to Bragança. The full experience is, for now, available exclusively on Fertagus, Barraqueiro's private rail operator, which operates between the capital and Setúbal.
Thus, those who travel on Fertagus - on a regular or occasional basis - you can now use Pick Hub to buy train tickets (and bus tickets, in the Sulfertagus service) or save your monthly Navegante passand even charge it through your cell phone. But even if you don't travel on Fertagus, you can use the Pick Hub to manage your Navigator.
Let's go in parts. Starting with the pass:
Load the pass into the Pick Hub
In the case of Lisboa Viva/Navegante cardThe association of the card to the application is simple. Just click on the option that says "add card" and that appears right on the Pick Hub home screen, and put the card against your phone. Yes, as simple as that!
Synchronization is done by NFC (you need to have this feature enabled) and then you can buy a Navigator pass, either the Municipal or the Metropolitan (only family options are not available). If you have an age profile associated with the card (such as sub23), the appropriate discount will be applied to the pass.
Unlike the simple tickets, in the case of the Navegante, the cell phone will not replace the physical card, so you will still need it to travel on Fertagus and other transport operators. However, you can now always top up from your cell phone with a credit card or MB Way.
If you have a Lisboa Viva/Navegante card without a loaded pass, you can still add it to the Pick Hub, but for now you won't be able to manage your Zapping balance or your Viva Go account. Ubirider hopes to launch at least the Zapping functionality soon.
Buy Fertagus tickets
Pick Hub only allows you to buy one-way tickets to travel Fertagus (or Sulfertagus). To do so, simply enter the destination where you can arrive by Fertagus (for example, Setúbal), check the timetable and proceed to the purchase.
Payment can be made by credit card or MB Way. You can add a TIN and the invoice for each ticket purchased is sent to the email associated with the Pick Hub account.
Once the payment is made, the ticket will be available in the app and you can travel right away, with no need to validate that ticket as this process is automated. If the station has access doors, you can use the QR code on your ticket to open them. That same QR code is what you will have to show to the enforcement teams if you are asked for it.
With Pick Hub, you can buy tickets for a trip that you are going to take at the moment, while you are on your way to the station, without wasting time in lines or at machines. And if you are planning a trip for a future date/time, the ticket you compare in advance is saved in the "Trips" section of the application.
Pick Hub communicated, in September 2019, an investment from Grupo Barraqueiro, Iberian leader in the urban and suburban passenger transport sector, moving more than 300 million passengers annually (pre-pandemic), and by Beatriz Barata, from the family that owns Grupo Guanabarawhich in Brazil moves more than two million people a day, corresponding to approximately 700 million trips a year.
"We saw in Ubirider's solution the future of passenger transportation." said Artur Pedrosa, administrator of Grupo Barraqueiro, in a press release released at the time. "We have been looking for technologies that allow us to improve service quality and operational efficiency"added, representing Grupo Guanabara, Beatriz Barata, who decided to invest individually in Ubirider. The values of the investments were not disclosed.
In addition to the Pick Hub application for end users and available for iOS, Android e Huawei devicesUbirider provides a platform for transport professionals. Through Pick Hub's web interface, operators benefit from a new, independent and transparent channel that manages passenger flows and collects fares in real time, without the need for additional infrastructure. The data to make these operations possible are collected by Pick Hub in an anonymized way from the users' cell phones.
