Karlsruhe, October 2016.
From October 19th to 21st 2016, INIT will be showcasing their latest state-of-the-art solutions at SITCE taking place in Singapore. During the three days of the exhibition, visitors can take advantage of the opportunity to talk to experts, get to know more about INIT's integrated solutions and view the latest developments, in particular MOBILEvario, INIT's account-based ticketing solution.
Smart integrated, interoperable and multimodal account-based ticketing
To give passengers freedom to choose how they pay for their journeys a trend is emerging world-wide that public transportation organizations are investing in new account-based ticketing solutions. INIT has deployed more than 50 fare management systems worldwide over the last 25 years and has now added a new milestone with the addition of revolutionary account-based ticketing solutions.
In traditional card-based ticketing systems, the fare logic and data is hard coded on the travel card (closed loop). As more flexible alternative, account-based systems hold the customer data, funds and business logic in a backend system, such as INIT’s MOBILEvario. The ticket medium itself only contains a unique identification number (ID) and is merely used as read-only identifier, authenticating the passenger and linking him to his back-office account. Based on this type of scheme, not only are the media traditionally issued by the transport company accepted, but also any personalized e-ticketing media that the passenger already possesses, for example EMV based contactless credit or bank cards and NFC smartphones may now be used (open-loop).
The integration of Application Program Interface (API) in the INIT solution creates an open architecture for the integration of external third party systems can be cost-effectively integrated. Allowing the flexibility to add additional mobility services for example mobile ticketing, e-mobility, bike sharing and car sharing schemes.
Any transactions are communicated in real-time to the backend system by each sales channel without the need to write information on the physical ticket media. Previously the challenge for account-based ticketing solutions has been the need for real-time communication between all components as well as handling network outages, bad cellular network coverage or hardware failures. INIT has mastered this challenge which allows smooth operation of its account-based ticketing solution system at all times. In case of a communication disruption with the vehicle devices, the INIT fare validation logic is able to recalculate existing transactions. Passengers are still able to board without delays as the vehicle devices feature a fallback logic, allowing them process offline validations based on business rules and white-/hotlists. When network connection is re-established the devices and the backend systems automatically synchronize causing no disruption to either passengers or transport companies.
Experience makes the difference
In 2014, the port city of Turku in Finland has been the first INIT customer to migrate from a card-based system to the account-based ticketing approach (appr. 300 vehicles). During an extended migration phase, the system supported both modes in parallel without a negative impact for customers. Furthermore, the development of our open SalesAPI allowed the introduction and easy integration of several sales channels into the system. The new ticketing system counts with no less than 100,000 transactions per day.
A few months later, Portland, Oregon decided to establish the first fully integrated ITS and account-based ticketing system in North America (700 vehicles). The so-called Hop Fastpass™ smart card system for public transit is scheduled to launch in 2017. Besides closed-loop fare media, the system will accept Apple Pay, Google Wallet and contactless bank cards as payment modes. Local suppliers have been taken under contract by the public transport operator TriMet for the distribution of fares, which is facilitated by standardized interfaces. Portland´s account-based ticketing project has been extended to the neighboring city of Vancouver, WA (170 vehicles), making regional travels even more convenient for public transport users.
Continuing the success into 2016, four more ticketing system contracts were signed by INIT, three of them in the USA: Tampa, Florida for a region-wide electronic ticketing and fare management system (8 county transportation companies, 600 vehicles), followed by Grand Rapids, Michigan (150 vehicles) and also by Honolulu, Hawaii (525 vehicles). The latest assignment came from National Express West Midlands, based in Birmingham, UK. The contract covers equipping 1,600 buses with appropriate hardware and installing a ticketing solution that enables the use of contactless bank cards for ticket payments.
Learn more about our innovative ticketing solutions and INIT´s overall range of products by visiting us at booth F09.
Do not miss our presentations during the SITCE sessions:
Session 8: The Next Level for BusesWednesday, 19th October 2016 from 16:15 to 17:30Paul Gwynn, Managing Director of INIT Asia-Pacific
Session 24: Public Transport Made Easier for All Friday, 21st October 2016 from 09:30 to 11:00Dirk Weisser, INIT Research& Development Manager
