Contactless cards offer more speed and security - Rapid Transit: Fare Collection

International Railway Journal, May, 2002 by Gerard Najman

Asia is leading the world in the growth of urban rail transport. In fare collection, the region favours contactiess smart cards, but has adopted various solutions for single journeys.

RAPID urban growth in Asian cities is fuelling the growth of heavy and light rail mass transit systems. Operators tend to favour a graduated, distance-based fares structure using stored value cards in order to ensure fairness as tracks extend further and further from city centres to develop new neighbourhoods.

That scenario implies a closed environment at both station entry and exit to ensure that passengers do not abuse the system. Another common feature in Asia that impacts on the choice of fare collection media is humid weather conditions.

The two factors together have persuaded transport operators to prefer recyclable plastic tickets rather than disposable paper tickets. This happened in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, and Manila.

Since the roll-out of the Hong Kong Octopus smart card system in December 1997, all the automatic fare collection systems in the region are, at least partly, based on contactless fare cards, which allows faster and more secure transactions.

There are, however, various categories depending upon circumstances:

* lines that are part of a new system, such as New Delhi, Kaohsiung, and Nanjing, where the choice of technology is free of interoperability constraints

* new lines that have to be integrated into an existing system, such as Kowloon-Canton Railway's West Rail and the Bangkok Blue Line

* upgraded lines within an existing system such as Kowloon-Canton Railway's East Rail, Singapore, and Taipei, and

* those that combine both upgrade and extension, such as Guangzhou.

When there is an interoperable constraint, the choice is, in general, to combine recyclable magnetic tickets for single journeys and contactless smart cards for stored value fare media-unless there is a will to get rid of magnetic tickets and move towards contactless technology, as in Singapore.

Where such constraints do not exist, the trend is to try to implement an all-contactless solution using a combination of plastic cards, paper cards, and recyclable tokens. For example, on the New Delhi metro, which is due to open at the end of this year, passengers will use tokens for single journeys or round trips, while others will use contactless cards for passes or Yatri stored value cards. Kaohsiung and Nanjing are evaluating their solution.

In order to match the various solutions, Thales e-Transactions CGA has developed a new range of gates. These are designed for contactless smart cards while allowing various options for single journey tickets--a purely contactless version in Singapore, a combination with recyclable magnetic cards in Hong Kong, and a combination with recyclable contactless tokens in New Delhi.

In Taipei, where there is no new line, all the installations have been upgraded with a contactless reader kit and a separate transaction data management channel. The Thales gates are usually equipped with retractable flaps rather than turnstiles to increase passenger throughput.

Where intermodal operations such as train/bus/ferry are concerned, the clear choice in all projects is to favour interoperability with stored value contactless cards and leave each operator with its own way of issuing single journey tickets. This is illustrated in the table.

The stored value card is used as an incentive for loyalty, giving discounts to the cardholder when charging the fare from the card, but also by adding a bonus when the holder wants to add value to the card. It may also grant discounts for transfers from metro to bus or vice versa, but, on the other hand, there is no advantage given to single journeys.

As a complementary service, Thales has developed a business model that compares the life-cycle cost of ownership of a system for various fare media technologies to be used by the miscellaneous categories of passenger, and helps operators to decide on their preferred solution.

FARE COLLECTION SYSTEMS IN USE IN FOUR ASIAN CITIES

Projects              Subway            Commuter         Bus/LRT
                                          rail

Hong Kong

 Single journey  Magnetic ticket 1  Magnetic ticket 2  Cash/farebox
 Stored value         Octopus            Octopus         Octopus

New Delhi

 Single journey  Recyclable token         none         Paper ticket
 Stored value       Yatri card            none          Yatri card

Singapore

 Single journey   Magnetic ticket         none         Paper ticket
 Stored value         EZ Link             none           EZ Link

Taipei

 Single journey   Magnetic ticket         none         Cash/farebox
 Stored value        EasyCard             none           EasyCard

Projects         Intermodality  Revenue
                                sharing

Hong Kong

 Single journey       no          no
 Stored value         yes         yes

New Delhi

 Single journey       no          no
 Stored value         yes         yes

Singapore

 Single journey       no          no
 Stored value         yes         yes

Taipei

 Single journey       no          no
 Stored value         yes         yes