One of the key issues to encouraging riders to return to public transport and attracting new customers is to make the experience easier, and especially ticketing. It has recently been identified in the UK that as many as a third of people that don’t use public transport cite the complexities of making sure they have the right and best ticket as the main reason. Governments around the world now see improved ticketing as a key issue to increasing passenger numbers.
Many years ago, closed loop card systems like the London Oyster system led the way for advanced ticketing solutions. More recently, these systems have been enhanced to accept any contactless bank card which increases flexibility. This historical success has led many commentators by default to the view that the “London Style - Tap-on, Tap-off” solution is the only way to improve the customer experience of ticketing. However, these systems can be complex, expensive, slow to implement, and not realistic for small to midsize authorities and operators.