Mass Transit: Thinking Outside the Fare Collection Box
17 Mar 2006
Using Automated Fare Collection to Revolutionize the Way Mass Transit Systems Do Business
Let's face it, mass transit is a hassle for riders in most cities around the world as they wrestle with bus tickets, train tickets, commuter rail tickets, parking payments and cash payments for small purchases at mass transit stations. What if you could offer your customers an easier, more efficient way to ride the bus or train? And what if in the process, you were able to streamline your operational efficiency and generate more revenue?
Automated Fare Collection promises just that in the form of a small, plastic card containing a microchip that handles everything from access control to accounting to purchasing – all without leaving the passenger's wallet or purse.
And transit systems, including Transport for London (TfL), are experiencing the benefits of this smart card technology in the form of increased revenues and reduced loss. In 1998, TfL was losing £43 million, or 3.7 percent of total revenue, on Underground passengers traveling without a ticket. By the end of 1999, with the distribution of the Oyster smart card system and installation of electronic gates at 155 underground and eight mainline stations, this number had dropped to 2 percent.
According to CEO John Stout of TranSys, the company that provides fare collection services for TfL, “The Oyster card has become as much of a London icon as the red bus or black cab. Londoners love Oyster because it is simple to use and delivers genuine benefits.”
Why Automate Fare Collection?
Automated Fare Collection and smart cards are addressing many of the key issues facing the mass transit market today:
- Increasing customer convenience and satisfaction. Finding ways to make it easier for more people to use mass transit will in turn increase ridership and generate more revenue. The smart card can improve passenger's speed during boarding, reduce times in the queue and allow for easier access to multiple forms of mass transit using the same payment mechanism.
- Reducing costs of collecting fares. Studies show that mass transit agencies spend on average 15 cents out of every $1 just collecting the fare. Automating this labor intensive and time consuming process can help drive down ticketing costs by at least a half of that, improve traffic-pattern monitoring, minimize cash handling and decrease errors – all while increasing customer satisfaction.
- Lowering lost revenues due to fraud. As noted in the Transport for London example above, losses from passengers traveling without a ticket can greatly cut into the bottom line. With Automated Fare Collection, passengers whose smart card payments are not up-to-date are not allowed access to the transit system.
Extending The Smart Card Beyond The Bus
In its full implementation, the smart card can allow mass transit travelers to travel seamlessly between modes – subway, train, bus, taxi, ferry – and to travel in different cities and countries all using the same payment mechanism.
A plan is currently in the works to allow riders, using a single smart card, to travel across multiple mass transit providers in the northern California bay area. The plan could eventually be extended to the entire state of California. A similar project is in progress in the Puget Sound area to support single-card travel on buses, commuter rail and light rail services.
“The real driving force behind this technology is the multi-applications nature of the smart card,” says Greg Mathy, client industry executive. “There can be an anchor or lead application, but the real homerun and convenience comes from adding other applications to the card such as retail, health, loyalty, ID, security and much more.”
When used as an e-purse or e-money, the same smart card used for mass transit can also be used for purchases where you would typically pay cash — a cup of coffee and donut to go along with your morning newspaper or magazine. Or use the card to pay for parking fees and highway tolls. Add identification information and your smart card becomes your security ID as well.
How EDS Is Innovating Mass Transit
Automated Fare Collection is creating a whole new way of doing business. It is completely revamping the way mass transit agencies collect fares, while making it more appealing and convenient for passengers.
EDS, who has been helping clients implement innovative Automated Fare Collection solutions since 1998, is a joint owner of TranSys, the company that runs fare collection for Transport For London. As an experienced provider, we offer innovative transportation IT services in a wide array of areas including:
- Automated Fare Collection Central System
- Applications development and maintenance services
- Enterprise applications management services
- Infrastructure management – hosting, network and desktop services
- Finance and Administration BPO services
- Call Center BPO services
We are the only provider of the Automated Fare Collection solution who offers a complete end-to-end delivery infrastructure that includes infrastructure services, back office operations and central system/key applications – so our clients aren't dealing with three or four companies to implement their applications – they only have to look to EDS for a full-service solution.
From computers in every station to host computers that monitor ticketing devices at a central location to call centers supporting all aspects of the system, EDS' solutions streamline the collection of revenue by decreasing the need for cash handling and ensuring providers get paid daily, instead of every three or four days.
Transport for London
EDS is a principal member of the TranSys consortium, which implemented one of the worlds' largest, fully-integrated smart card-based fare collection services for the Transport for London. The system currently supports 8,000 buses, 273 metro stations, 2 billion annual rides, 4,000 retail outlets and 16,000 smart card devices.
Read more about Transport for London Case Study
We've had demonstrated systems in operations since 1998 with a central application in use in three locations in France, supporting ticketing in Strasbourg and Marseilles, as well as operations and infrastructure services in London.
Revolutionizing Mass Transit
Are you interested in revolutionizing your mass transit? Let EDS show you how the mass transit system of the future is available to implement today.