Operators and passengers will reap the benefits: Developments in contactiess fare payment could bring considerable savings for operators whilst making urban transit a more accessible and convenient experience for passengers - Contactless Smart Cards

International Railway Journal, Jan, 2002 by Gerard Najman

CONTACTLESS smart card technology is taking over from magnetic tickets in automatic fare collection. The industry is now able to provide not only contactless cards but also tickets and tokens.

Whilst a disposable contactless ticket is much more expensive than a magnetic ticket, much of the equipment necessary to process contactless smart cards costs around half that of machines capable of processing both magnetic and contactless cards. The use of contactless equipment also allows maintenance costs to be reduced.

But can a new project use contactless smart cards as the sole technology? To try to answer this question, Thales has built a business model to evaluate the total cost of ownership of the system using various combinations of equipment for a specific project or environment. The model uses the factual database on capital and maintenance costs that we have built up from experience and discussion with operators.

It stresses the importance of key factors such as the type of access and exit control performed and the evolution of the price of the actual ticket or card. The issue for occasional passengers, who normally travel with a paper or magnetic ticket, is whether to use a contactless smart card which costs a lot more. The model also shows that the combination of contactless ticketing can now offer the most cost effective solution to operators, provided that the ratio of stored value and period passes to single journey tickets is high.

The use of a smart token is appropriate in closed environments (with exit gntes), whilst the contactless ticket is suitable for use not only by occasional passengers but also for short-period tickets such as 24-hour passes, weekly passes and 10-journey tickets.

Delhi Metro Rail, India, has decided to use a full contactless payment system based on smart cards and tokens when the first section of the metro opens at the end of 2002. We believe this will be the first metro in the world to operate such a system.

Choosing a full contactless payment system affects the design and quantity of equipment that needs to be installed.

With booking office, self service and add-value machines, the main trends likely to emerge are:

* fewer transactions because a smart card can be automatically topped-up whilst being processed at the gate, where the passenger has agreed to link the use of their card to their bank account

* shorter transaction times because there will be a higher proportion of passengers with added value on an existing card than purchasing new fare cards, and

* less use of coins because the added value will be paid using banknotes, bank cards, or an e-purse if available.

Therefore, the overall number of self-service machines can be reduced. The number of booking office machines can also be reduced with the development of add-value facilities in shops, bank ATMs, or through the internet.

The use of full contactless flap gates enables the throughput to be raised from 35 to 60 passengers per minute. New types of gate are characterised by the use of retractable flaps, rather than turnstiles, which is more convenient for passengers, especially the disabled and those travelling with luggage or children.

The casing has been reshaped to make it more suitable for use with contactless smart cards, and the aisle is fitted with a sophisticated passenger sensing system with 16 optical cells to reduce the risk of fraud. Small and lightweight hand-held card verifiers are necessary for inspectors to check randomly whether passengers have processed their smart cards at entry or exit.

As contactless smart cards do not produce any printed information of the last transaction or the remaining value, it is necessary to install stationary enquiry machines where such information can be easily read and displayed.

RELATED ARTICLE: Low-Cost Contactless Ticket

MIFARE UltraLight is the latest product launched by Philips Semiconducters, Britain, as part of its development of Mifare interface technology. Philips has formed a partnership with Magnadata International to provide a smart, low-cost contactless ticket which can be produced in high volumes for mass transit systems. Production will start this month and the partners say they expect annual sales to reach between 50 million and 100 million tickets during the next five years.

Philips' Mifare interface platform consists of chip solutions for pure contactless and dual interface smart cards, supporting both contact and contactless applications on a single chip, and reader devices. The new UltraLight system is suitable for applications that require low-cost, contactless ticketing such as single trip tickets.

Philips Semiconducters' general mar ager of business line chipcards, Mr Reinhard Kalla, said: "By combining our silicon expertise with Magnadata's role in the high volume paper ticket market, we will be able to offer Mifare UltraLight-based smart solutions that meet the need of transport service providers and passengers."