The public transport systems are the backbone of every city, transporting millions of people. Whether it is public buses or metro rail networks, it gets the city moving. For example, the Delhi Metro Rail has a whopping ridership of 6.5-7.5 million people on a daily basis which crossed the 7.86 million mark on the 18th of November, 2024. Similarly, the London Underground (London Tube) has 11 lines and 272 stations. It has a 3.23 daily ridership on average.
Understandably, these transport systems use fairly advanced ticketing and fair collection to ensure a hassle-free transportation experience for commuters. The DMRC Metro Cards in New Delhi and the Oyster Cards in London are the perfect example of that. Technology-driven fare collection and ticket validation have become necessary for many reasons including quick ticketing and seamless entry and exit of passengers, transparency in fair collection, as well as loyalty and smart pass programs which can be implemented from time to time.
Technologies like RFID, QR Code, and NFC play a great role in smart ticketing, facilitating quicker ticket validation, and transparent fair collection. Let’s see how this works in detail:
1.RFID and NFC-based Smart Cards for Ticket Validation and Fare Collection
RFID and NFC technologies play a great role in smart ticketing solutions in many countries with robust transport networks. Whether it is smart rail, metro rail transport, or bus transport these technologies allow for smart ticketing, ticket validation, and fare collection. RFID is a fairly advanced technology that allows for wireless ticket validation at various metro rail stations. The way this works is that RFID readers (HF and NFC) are integrated at AFC (Automatic Fair Collection) gates and when the user taps their RFID smart card or NFC card near the reader, he is allowed access, and the entry and exit are marked accordingly.
The RFID or NFC-based smart cards being used in metro rail transportation also can be recharged at the station or online using a payment app. For example, you can recharge your Delhi Metro Rail smart card using Paytm and Amazon Pay applications by entering card no. found on the back of the metro smart card.
2. QR Code based paper tickets and e-tickets
Another popular ticket validation and fare collection method in public buses and metro rail is the use of QR code-based tickets. The city bus transportation in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, etc. allows commuters to download official bus transport apps and generate a ticket themselves. They can just fill in on-boarding and de-boarding stations and generate a ticket by paying online. These transport systems have dedicated applications for commuters and allow commuters to use the digital QR Code ticket, not making it necessary to print the ticket.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation allows commuters to get a QR code-based ticket using the ticket vending machines placed at the stations where they can just put in cash and select the journey to get a QR code-based ticket. The advanced transportation system facilitates quick scanning of these QR Code tickets at AFC gates without any issues and keeps the crowd moving.
3. NFC tokens for ticket and fare collection
Another smart way is the use of NFC tokens that are issued by ticket vending machines at metro rail platforms. These tickets are issued and deposited at the start and end of the journey respectively and reconfigured again for the next passenger. Like the smart card and QR code-based ticket, the commuter is required to scan these NFC tokens at the AFC gates during entry and exit, at stations.
The DMRC has now discontinued NFC plastic tokens that were in use before and has adopted QR Code labels as many passengers, sometimes lose their NFC tokens and the cost of running these tokens was a lot for the metro services. Like QR Code label-based tickets, passengers could get taken to the ticket vending machine themselves, which made the process pretty automatic and saved additional staff for ticketing.
NFC, QR Code, and RFID technology-based Ticketing is Also Used in Sports and Concert Events
The advance ticket validation and fare collection as described above isn’t limited to just transportation. These tickets and smart passes are also leveraged by sports events, seminars, hospitality access control (NFC key cards), concerts, etc.
These ticketing systems and fare collection systems can be easily connected to the internet and digital wallets, allowing users to pay for their tickets and passes and even shop at sports and entertainment venues.
For example, the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 used RFID-based tickets and passes in millions to allow for seamless entry and exit of fans throughout the football stadiums across Doha and other Qatar cities. The fans could also buy merchandise and meals using their tickets and passes and pay for those things digitally, with great ease and transparency.
Use of RFID and QR Code-based Fair Collection in Parkings
Now, many people don’t use public transport frequently and prefer to use their own cars. RFID and QR Code technologies play a great role for them as well. RFID-based FASTags on vehicle windshields are now used in several state-managed parking lots across New Delhi.
Many parking lots also offer QR Code-based parking tickets which the commuters can use to validate their parking.
Use of POS Terminals for Ticketing
The QR Code technology is also compatible with digital payments and fare collection in events and parking using the POS terminals where one can accept payments and issue tickets/receipts instantly.
EnCstore.com offers POS terminals along with RFID and QR Code solutions for various businesses in parking management, sports and concerts, seminar events, etc.
To conclude, technologies like RFID, NFC, and QR Codes are used in smart ticketing solutions, ensuring automatic ticket validation and fare collection whether it is bus transport, rail transport, or events like FIFA, Taylor Swift concerts (which used RFID wristbands), hospitality, seminars, etc. These technologies, the smart ticketing systems offer seamless entry and exit experiences to people at the venue ensuring accuracy and transparency and saving costs.
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