Riders respond to a fare deal - innovations in light and commuter rail collection technology

Railway Age, May, 1998 by William D. Middleton

SMART (MULTIPLE-APPLICATION) CARDS

Widely used overseas, a newer technology now appearing on North American transit systems is the smart card. While some pre-paid memory-only cards are sometimes called smart cards, the true smart card is essentially one that has its own microchip and can be used for multiple applications. While some are contact cards, a contactless or "proximity" card that uses radio frequencies to transmit data between the card and a reader offers the greatest opportunity for advanced transit applications. Prospective advantages include much faster processing speeds at the fare gate, the ability to handle transactions at more than one transit agency, and lower maintenance and operating costs than magnetic-card AFC systems.

Widely used for other applications in Europe and Asia, smart cards are now being applied to transit there as well. By far the largest application is Hong Kong's Creative Star system, which became operational last year on six suburban rail, metro, bus, and ferry systems. Creative Star has already sold over four million cards and is now handling four million transactions every day. London Transport and the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive are testing smart card systems, and London Transport recently awarded contracts for system-wide subway and bus installation of its Prestige system. The Passe Francile smart card project at Paris, which involves RATP, SNCF, and private bus operators, began tests in 1997 and is now moving into an expanded trial.

North American systems, too, are now seriously looking at smart cards. During the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, for example, Atlanta's MARTA participated in the test of a stored-value VisaCash contact smart card distributed at 1,500 retail locations. The test found that the cards were used more on MARTA than for any other purpose.

In 1995 Washington D.C's WMATA initiated a demonstration project with GO-Card, which could be utilized at 19 Metrorail stations, on three Metrobus routes, and at five Metrorail parking lots. Cubic supplied the equipment and its commercial smart card, and more than 2,500 riders utilized the system during a successful one-year demonstration. Early last year WMATA contracted with Cubic for additional equipment and 14,000 smart cards for system-wide deployment.

Close behind WMATA is the San Francisco Bay Area's TransLink" system being developed by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). Except on BART, where transactions will be handled through the existing fare collection system, TransLink'" will be a "stand beside" system paralleling existing technology in use on 27 regional transit systems. It will act as the electronic equivalent of cash fares, replace a variety of period passes and multi-ride tickets, and support a wide range of operator-specific fare policies. MTC moved to smart cards after a disappointing trial program with a magnetic swipe ticket.

The agency has issued an REP for a 10-year design, build, operate, and maintain turnkey contract. Proposals were due on June 15, and MTC anticipates a contract award by yearend. A six-month Phase One rollout is expected to begin by year-end 1999, and a Phase Two full-system rollout should begin in 2001.