Public Transport Ticketing System (Part-1)

Dear Reader,

This is our attempt to analyze the Automated Fare collection system by selecting a mix of countries including advanced economy countries, Asian economies, and nations spread across all the continents where fare collection systems are considered robust, diverse, and efficient. We have to break it down into three articles, this being the first of the three parts.

Ambimat Electronics with its experience of over 4 decades of indigenously designing and manufacturing Payment products in India, wishes to draw the attention of our customers and readers of blog posts towards the Automated Fare collection system.

India

National Common Mobility Card (NCMC): NPCI was entrusted by the Ministry of Urban Development (MOUD) to prepare the standards & specifications of the NCMC. NCMC is an interoperable, open-loop, EMV based contactless payment product. This advanced and secure card can be used for all payment applications including transport (Metro, Bus, etc.), toll plazas, and shopping. For payments lower than INR 2,000, the customers can simply tap their card and the transactions are processed in a matter of seconds.

Other solutions available in the market are Paytm, Ridlr, DIMTS, Trimax, Paycraft, and Asis

Ridlr: The Ridlr application is available to consumers to make payments for public transport (bus, Metro) through an app on their smartphone. The services are currently available in Mumbai.

PayTM: The PayTM wallet can be used to purchase Metro tickets in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, and Hyderabad. PayTM wallets can also be used for toll payments at select tollways across the country and for making payments on taxi services such as UBER and OLA.

China

Beijing has replaced a paper ticket-based system with automatic fare collection through barriers activated by magnetic strip tickets or passes.

Beijing’s public transport payments company Yikatong launched an app for ‘most’ Android devices that allows commuters to ditch their physical card and pay fares via their phone.

Saudi Arabia

Riyadh is in the process of implementing the latest technology, including contactless payment and near field communication for new public transport networks which will enable passengers to pay using their mobile phones. The ticketing system will encompass both on-board ticketing sale and validation systems for the anticipated 800- to the 1000-vehicle public bus network, as well as sale and access control systems for the over 80 stations and six lines of the metro system. Similar to “smart” ticketing systems in other major metropolises, the Riyadh ticketing system will allow access to the entire public transportation system through a single card or mobile phone application.

South Korea

The T-money card is used to pay transportation fare. When a T-money card embedded with a smart chip is brought into contact with a terminal (card reader), the terminal immediately receives the locational information from a satellite. Through radio frequency (RF) communication with the card reader, information is received and sent, such as the location of boarding and whether any transfers were made, thereby completing payment of the fare. When the bus approaches a certain distance of the garage, the payment statements are wirelessly transmitted to a bus aggregation system by a wireless access point (AP) and an aggregation PC. For subways, the payment statements are stored within the card reader. All statements are transferred to and managed by the calculation system at Korea Smart Card, Co., Ltd. for the calculation of fares.

Japan

The contactless fare collection technology using integrated chip (IC) cards provides interoperability among cards issued by 10 transit groups covering 52 rail operators and 96 bus transit companies. The system is integrated across the entire country, making it one of the largest in the world, covering over 80 million smartcards.

The fare card alliance includes the Suica card (launched in 2001) of JR East and the Pasmo card (launched in 2007) of private railway companies. Both cards use Sony’s FeliCa technology and can be used on all modes of transport and at shops, restaurants, convenience stores (that display the logos of Suica, Kitana, Pasmo, TOICA, Manaca, ICOCA, SUGOCA, Nimoca or Hayakaken), and vending machines (where the Pasmo or Suica logos are displayed). As of May 2015, 30,641 shops were accepting the IC alliance cards.

The Suica and Pasmo cards can be purchased from ticket vending machines (TVMs) at commuter train and subway stations. Pasmo can be charged onboard buses. The five types of Pasmo cards available include blank, named, children, commuter ticket and auto-charge enabled.

Suica cards are available from JR East (Suica card, the personalized MySuica card, and View Suica card), Tokyo Waterfront Area Rapid Transit (Rinkai Suica card), and Tokyo Monorail (Monorail Suica card). Passengers accumulate bus points when they board a bus using the Suica or Pasmo card. These points can be utilized to get free bus tickets for future travel.

South Africa

The Myconnect card makes it possible for passengers to budget for their travel expenses and use a single, cashless card system to pay for their journey. Passengers using the MyCiTi bus network purchase a Myconnect card for R25 from MyCiTi stations or from participating retailers, and load money onto the cards. The Myconnect card uses MasterCard’s contactless technology which provides consumers with a safe, easy and convenient way to pay by simply tapping on a specially equipped terminal each time they enter or leave a station or bus. Fares are accurately calculated when they tap in and tap out.

About Ambimat Electronics:

With design experience of close to 4 decades of excellence, world-class talent, and innovative breakthroughs, Ambimat Electronics is a single-stop solution enabler to Leading PSUs, private sector companies, and start-ups to deliver design capabilities and develop manufacturing capabilities in various industries and markets. AmbiIoT design services have helped develop SmartwatchesSmart homesMedicalsRobotics, RetailPubs and brewerySecurity 

Ambimat Electronics has come a long way to become one of India’s leading IoT(Internet of things) product designers and manufacturers today. We present below some of our solutions that can be implemented and parameterized according to specific business needs. AmbiPay, AmbiPower, AmbiCon, AmbiSecure, AmbiSense, AmbiAutomation.

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References:-

https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/PublicationReportDetails.aspx?TYPE=QUICK&PARAM1=2019&PARAM2=0

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Public Transport Ticketing System (Part-2)