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EC Public Transport Smart-Ticketing Review

Dr Gareth Evans, with AECOM
EC DG-TREN A4/124-2/2009
2010, £26,425

project website

Public Transport plays a key role in meeting many future transport policy objectives. Smart-ticketing is being introduced to more Public Transport systems across Europe, however, the interoperability of smart-ticketing between different systems is currently limited to a handful of areas. Removing these perceived ticketing barriers is important in the promotion of truly seamless travel opportunities by Public Transport.

The purpose of this study is to:

• Review the current situation with regards to Public Transport ticketing, payment and verification systems (smart cards) across Europe and globally;
• Review trends in ticketing and fare payment and technological development in this area, considering the value chain and the business drivers associated with such technology and synergies with other potential applications;
• Review current and emerging standards for such ticketing and fare payment systems; then
• Suggest the approach the Commission should take in encouraging interoperability of such ticketing systems, with the aim of reducing barriers to use of public transport and in particular use of multiple modes of travel within the same journey.

The study is being undertaken by a consortium led by AECOM, including TORG, Peter James Associates, AustriaTech and NEA. The outputs of this study will be designed to respond to the European Commission’s green paper, “Towards a new culture for urban mobility".

TORG are leading the review and analysis tasks of this project, and are also contributing to future scoping of smart-media and identifying possible additional functionalities that could be applied to add value to existing Public Transport services.

This project also has close links with another project in which TORG were involved, the EU IFM project (http://www.ceg.ncl.ac.uk/transport/research/projects/ifm.htm).