How smart can electronic ticketing get? Electronic ticketing in public transport is the most innovative example of mass fare collection and payment. But what started as a means of making public transport more manageable is now becoming a business in itself with ever wider applications - Fare Collection

International Railway Journal, Feb, 2004

MAJOR issues affecting technology, finance, and human interfaces in automatic fare collection will be addressed in Italy this month when the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) holds a conference on automatic fare collection (AFC).

AFC is a response to the need for fast control and fast money transfer in a short time and in a secure environment to improve the flow of passengers through a public transport network. Other benefits include ease of use, increased reliability of terminals and cards, and reduced maintenance costs.

Moreover, an interoperable electronic ticketing system offers the public greater freedom and seamless journeys, as well as opening the door to collaboration with other service providers and banks.

New technologies in electronic ticketing provide the opportunity to develop new applications. Interactive television, encryption, biometrics, mobile telephony, MMS, and text messaging have reached various stages of development and all of them open the door to new means of access control, prepaid tickets, single tickets, and integration with customer relations.

But one remaining hindrance to wide-scale adoption of smart cards is the management of the occasional user. Smart cards are still relatively expensive so it does not make financial sense to make them available to people who use the service on an irregular basis. Most services, transport-related or otherwise, still have users who prefer to pay with cash. If access control is based on an electronic system, then these users will need special handling. When no clear strategy is available, the whole service may be obstructed or disrupted. The appropriate fare solution has not yet been determined but possibilities exist in, for example, mobile telephones and disposable smart cards.

Integrated fare collection is becoming more and more common with different public transport operators integrating not only fares but also payment solutions for other transport functions such as car parking, car sharing, or toll payments.

There is also a clear trend towards "multi-applications" where completely different services such as social security payments and e-purse applications, are integrated into one device. While these give the customer higher flexibility and greater ease of use, the one who provides the services needs to be paid promptly and in a secure way. This is still a major challenge.

Electronic ticketing systems are often seen as expensive investments in infrastructure. However, they can give direct access to the client and provide improved data on customer behaviour, providing an opportunity to optimise and individualise services. This results in an enhanced service for the customer that can justify a premium. Electronic ticketing can be part of an application that also helps developing loyalty schemes.

Mobile telephony has already demonstrated what can be achieved by people getting together to define a global open standard. Harmonisation initiatives in AFC are taking place at both national and international levels and major deployments are being implemented, though mainly at the local level. However, it is clear that synergies could be reached between cities if the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) standard could be applied to AFC.

The question is whether or not GSM can be replicated since the market for electronic ticketing is highly influenced by local actors and situations. Another issue in this field is new payment applications such as mobile phones and local e-purses. Often it is not yet clear whether these are in line with existing legislation.

Seventh Biannual AFC Conference

THE UITP's 7th international biannual conference on Automatic Fare Collection takes place in Bologna, Italy, from February 5 to 6 in connection with the UITP Smart Card Village at the Europolis exhibition, "Technologies For A Liveable City" at the Bologna Congress.

The seven conference sessions cover practical experiences of operators, the evaluation and organisation of the business of AFC, electronic ticketing developments, "managing the back office", ticketing solutions for the occasional traveller, achieving national and international standards, and a round table on AFC standardisation.

A technical visit the day after the conference includes a visit to Florence for a presentation of the e-ticketing system of the Florence Public Transport Company (ATAF) and a visit on the network to see it in operation.

Driving Down Chip Costs

A BRITISH company will unveil at the UITP AFC conference what it claims to be the lowest-cost radio frequency identification chip ever produced for smart card ticketing applications.

Known as Jewel, it has a silicon area 20% smaller than other currently available products, making it significantly less expensive to produce. The company, Innovision Research & Technology, says Jewel will enable companies to produce convenient low-cost ISO 14443 A-compatible contactless tickets suitable for deployment with existing ticket types and in virtually any type of public transport system.