Fast, easy, cashless: Public transport tickets can be directly assigned to one's own bank card, as a current project shows. Partners Netcetera, Abrantix, Baselland Transport, Transports Publics Fribourgeois and Worldline are reshuffling the market with the next generation of user-friendly and sustainable public transport tickets.
You are traveling in another city and want to use public transport. Have you installed the ticket app of the regional provider and created an account? Do you have enough cash on you for the vending machine? If not, it will be difficult with the onward journey.
The “Tap & Ride” project by Netcetera, Abrantix, Baselland Transport (BLT), Transports Publics Fribourgeois (TPF) and Worldline finally abolishes the mobility stopper: Tickets for public transport now only require an NFC-enabled bank card, such as a credit card. This should allow smooth travel throughout Switzerland in the future.
In the Swiss cantons of Baselland and Fribourg, the partner companies have launched a six-month pilot project to test customer acceptance of contactless and cashless ticket purchasing. Passengers select the ticket at a terminal and pay contactless using their credit or debit card. The ticket is referenced directly to the bank card - no need for a printed ticket or smartphone app.
The advantages are obvious: many travelers do not have the appropriate regional app on their smartphones, such as business travelers or tourists - in contrast, almost everyone has a credit card with them. The elimination of ticket printing is sustainable and saves resources. In addition, the cashless process eradicates the time spent waiting to buy tickets from the driver. This has a positive effect on travel times: Lines can be traveled more quickly, and the time taken for ticket sales is eliminated.
“The ticket market has to adapt to the dynamic progress of digital transformation,” explains Oliver Aeschlimann, Head of Smart Mobility at Netcetera. “Digitalization should make people’s lives easier. With Tap & Ride, we are pursuing the vision of a contactless ticket service in public transport. In the future, Tap & Ride should run via all possible contact points, such as existing terminals or smartphones, so that as many travelers as possible can benefit from it.”
Safe, user-friendly, and progressive
The innovative process also offers advantages for transportation companies. Mobility providers can integrate Tap & Ride into their ticketing with minimal effort and maximum security. Thanks to payment service provider Abrantix, payment processing is EP2-compliant and also offers a high level of data protection and security. This puts Tap & Ride a big step ahead of other projects that rely on processing via Europay International, MasterCard, and Visa (EMV): all contactless payment options known in Switzerland are possible thanks to the open EP2 standard, and extensive coverage is guaranteed by the 95 percent of EP2-capable terminals in Switzerland.
Usability bonus for customers: No prior registration of their respective cards is required. Among other things, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI), which applies to both terminals and software, ensures the security of customer data.
Netcetera, Worldline, Abrantix, and the public transport companies BLT and TPF are jointly driving forward the digitalization of the ticketing business, thus promoting particularly fast, simple, and sustainable use of the ticketing service by customers. “Netcetera is a long-standing, visionary partner. Their expertise and experience from many innovation projects are once again taking us a decisive step forward as a public transport provider," says Stephan Brode, Chief Digital Officer at BLT, praising the close collaboration.
In the coming months, the partners will therefore be collecting travelers' feedback on the new payment method, which can be tried out on BLT Line 66 and TPF Funiculaire.
On this topic