ISSN (Print) : 0974-6846

Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol 9(47), DOI: 10.17485/ijst/2016/v9i47/103209, December 2016 ISSN (Online) : 0974-5645

Public Transportation Automated Fare

Collection Systems Design
Andrey V. Gusev1 and Veniamin V. Sergeev2
Tyumen Transportation System JSC, http://oao-tts.ru, Tyumen -625000, Russian Federation;
1

[email protected]
2
Tyumen Industrial University, Tyumen - 625000, Russian Federation;
[email protected]

Abstract
Objectives: The article discusses the development of automated payment systems of public transport fare and accounting
of passengers. The main objective of the study is a creation of the concept, which allows us to take into account the practical
difficulties of collecting fare, electronic monitoring of passenger traffic and control of public transport routes. Methods/
Statistical Analysis: Design of the automated systems is based on analysis of business process chains and their gradual
decomposition. The basis of the study approach is developed from the hypothesis about a universal technical and economic
solution that allows us to integrate the autonomous elements of the system. The authors summarize the international
experience in the development of similar systems in order to create the best practices. Findings: The study worked out
the general principles of the automated fare systems in transport. The paper presents the form of deployment, describes
typical solutions for the design and gives an example of its practical implementation. The authors specified a composition
of business processes in the system operation at various stages. To assess the implementation prospects, the SWOT-
analysis was carried out for the electronic accounting systems of the passenger traffic by using state and multiple vendors’
fare cards. Application/Improvement: The results of the comparative study of the automated systems made it possible to
complement the existing concept with internal control components for autonomous elements. The authors suggested the
introduction of “stop list” units between synchronization intervals in the implementation of fare transactions, as well as
differential risk transfer for the fare fixing by the system users.

Keywords: Automated Data Processing ,Control Systems, Fare, Passenger Traffic , Urban Transport

1.  Introduction system should meet the criteria of reliability and advanced
requirements of the information security.
In today’s world, the lives of most citizens are closely According to data provided by the IDC analysts, with
linked to the use of information systems. Completeness forecasts of costs and cash flow trends for the development
of automation, configurability, flexibility and availability of information technologies in Russia, for 2011-2015 the
of information service and user-friendliness of vari- average annual cost growth rate for information technol-
ous functions are the main criteria for their work. Such ogies equals 11.6%. In 2015, the annual flow of funds for
an information system will be applied more often and, the development of information technologies has reached
therefore, it is convenient and advantageous to both users 41.1 billion USD. In such circumstances, organizations
and owners of intellectual property. Such an information involved in the provision of the services are advised to
system should be customer-oriented. In addition, this invest in information systems and their maintenance, as

*Author for correspondence

 Public Transportation Automated Fare Collection Systems Design

this leads to time reduction in the information processing Typological passenger traffic and payment control
in order to optimize business processes in providing the automation system is intended to enable the transport
services. company to carry out transportation as efficiently as pos-
The public transport enterprises are one of the sible16. Given the urgent need to establish a city-wide
promising areas in terms of the automation of data col- automated fare system, the first issue that shall be solved is
lection and processing; the accurate information on the the issue of choice of the basic technology for the develop-
passenger traffic is very important for them, as well as ment of new payment technology. The National Payment
the information on revenue collection and providing System (NPS) technology and infrastructure are pro-
travel benefits. At the same time, the urban public trans- posed to be applied as the basic technology for the phased
port sphere has a number of unresolved issues relating implementation of the system in Russia after implementa-
to the possibility of cashless fare payment by passen- tion of a contactless payment system on its basis. To date,
gers. Therefore, the development and implementation the MIFARE® contactless cards are the most widely used
of automated systems at these enterprises is an urgent both in Russia and abroad, the application of other types
applied scientific task. is not widely used due to technical and economic aspects
According to the European Bank for Reconstruction of their use.
and Development, in the big cities of Western Europe, In developing the concept of automatic cashless fare
such as London, Berlin, Barcelona, loss of revenue col- system, it is necessary to form the general principles of
lection in public transport is 2-3%, in Eastern Europe in formation, and to provide various nuances that may arise
Prague, Warsaw, Bratislava this equals 3-7%. However, during its creation and integration. Firstly, the system
these losses in Russia are up to 25% due to the use of should take into account both the concessionary travelers
paper tickets, the human factor and the lack of auto- and ordinary passengers, who are not entitled to a con-
matic account of concessionary travellers. Some papers cessionary fare. Second, the system should be constructed
are more or less devoted to the issue in the following on the principle of “prepaid” service delivery. Third, the
fields: subsidiary financing of public transportation1; contactless plastic smart card protected by cryptographic
routing and development of optimal logistics in public means should be applied as the main instrument for
transport2; the issue of the deployment of accounting accounting the right to travel. Fourth, the cost of travel
and control system of services provided for passengers3, should be dependent on the distance between stops.
and others.

2.  Materials and Methods 3.  Results

The developments in the field of urban logistics, the state The Multimedia Automated Complex (MAC) is designed
programs of public transport development and the lat- to provide monitoring and management of public trans-
est publications on the organization of passenger traffic port, fare collection, and to control all the necessary
in the urban environment, as well as the modernization systems of the vehicle. The MAC system is built in a mod-
and improvement of the urban public transportation ular principle and has different configurations depending
are the basis of the study approach4,5,6. The development on the functional requirements. The MAC is a hardware
prospects for the public transport have been presented in and software complex consisting of onboard devices that
detail in the paper7 The issues of formation and techno- are installed in public transport, as well as the MAC soft-
logical design of the automated control systems for public ware platform on which all solutions are built to provide
transport are described in the papers8,9,10 the organization GPS satellite monitoring and real-time management ser-
of payment systems and the establishment of flexible and vices17. The MAC software may consist of the following
rigid tariff are especially disclosed in the papers11,12,13,14. modules: Timetable Module; Timetable Calculation and
Solutions regarding the data integrity during the opera- Simulation Module; Shift Module; Fares Module; Stops
tion of automated payment and control systems in public Script Module; Reports Module; Fuel Control Module;
city transport are proposed in publication15. A wide range Passengers Counting Module; Transport Security
of publications on the issue underscores the importance Module. The modules may be implemented completely
and relevance of the study. independently and in any configuration.

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 Andrey V. Gusev and Veniamin V. Sergeev

The contactless card (a generation of Mifare® The public transport is equipped with the transport ter-
contactless smart cards) is a plastic card with a built-in minals (validators), one is on each door, which records the
microprocessor and an antenna. The operation principle trip using the social and transportation cards. The transport
is based on the information exchange between the card companies (TC) set Wi-Fi points and a connection to a secure
and a reader via radio channel. The main applications of database server. On the arrival at the park, the TC loads the
the contactless smart cards are the fare systems of public information on completed transactions to the database server.
transport, access control, etc. Each contactless card has At the TC on the basis of the received data, reporting and
a unique serial number. This number is specified during analytical forms on transport activity of the company are
manufacture and cannot be changed during the lifetime generated and transmitted in real time to the data processing
of the card. The electronic card as a mean of fare payment center. The Fares Module software provides data exchange
can be applied not only in metro, buses, trams and between the local server databases, real-time processing of
received reporting and analytical forms for the analysis of the
trolley buses, but also in taxi. The Mifare® cards became
transport companies’ activity. The software is implemented
widespread due to a number of advantages, such as:
in a form of separate modules having access to the common
–– speed of payment transactions /registration process- database. The functions of the Fares Module include as follows:
ing to 0.3 seconds; maintenance of financial transactions database; maintenance
–– usability, cheapness of issue in comparison with of cards database; card conversion control; the formation of
contact chip cards; records; registration and preparation of configuration files for
–– storing the information about the account status terminals; support and maintenance of stop-lists; interaction
directly on the card, which allows to pay fare without with other databases and data centers.
contacting the data center.
3.2  Types of Travel Documents
3.1 Brief Description of the Fares Module The multiple contactless plastic card built on the MIFARE®
Architecture DESFire EV1 technology (protection CCEAL4 + chip,
which corresponds to the requirements for the banking
The module provides the fare payment on public trans-
systems) should be applied as a basic non-personalized
port using the electronic ticket and the electronic social
fare account instrument for urban and suburban transport.
card. The options of the vehicle equipment: a conduc-
This technology will allow us to build a flexible and highly
tor version (using a portable payment terminal) and a secure system of differentiated fares with an optimal ratio
stationary terminal. The installation of the stationary pay- between security and cost of media. The card developed in
ment terminals is the most effective option, which will be accordance with this technology is virtually unlimited in
discussed below. lifetime and allows a virtually unlimited number of replen-
To use the module, a company is created; it is a sys- ishments (the validity period can be up to 5 years or more,
tem operator, which creates a data processing center (the to a large extent it is determined by the physical wear and
DPC). Together with the operator, a card center respon- tear). The main types of cards are shown in Table 1.
sible for the card production and sale is created, as
well as implementation of settlements with carriers
(Figure 1). Table 1.  Fare Cards Classification
Types by Users _ travel card;
_ student;
_ school;
_ social
Types by Work _ Mifare® (all types);
Principle: _ smart cards;
_ NFC cell phone
Types by _ electronic social card;
Application: _ multiple renewed card;
_ for a certain period;
_ for a certain number of trips;
_ single-use
Figure 1.  Fare Cards Production and Sale Process.

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 Public Transportation Automated Fare Collection Systems Design

The concessionary travelers, as well as citizens, who travels between two stops and pays for travel in both
will receive an electronic pensioner ID card, can use the directions at once, the ticket price remains at the current
pensioner ID card or a social insurance certificate as a level, and in the case of payment (or not full payment)
travel document (for the concessionary travelers it is for the current trip between these two points only in one
mandatory), which is the contactless or dual smart card. direction, he or she will have to pay more for the follow-
In this case, DESFire EV1 logical protocols emulation ing trip. The implementation of the proposed technology
is performed on the smart card chip, and the process- is possible through the use of “electronic ticket” and the
ing technology is almost identical to the above option selected type of the travel card chip.
(it is performed in the usual way for non-concessionary Audit Fare Control. Audit fare control should be
replenishments). performed by controlling the electronic tickets in the
For non-scheduled passengers (the non-concession- passengers’ travel documents (cards). To do this, hand-
ary ones) paper contactless travel documents designed held devices (the validators) can be applied, which allow
by MIFARE® Ultralight C technology, without replenish- to view all the parameters of (the last) electronic ticket
ment capabilities, should be used. The chosen technology stored on the card. Taking into account the preservation
allows achieving a minimal cost of the travel document, of the electronic ticket even after repayment of the excess
while maintaining a high level of the cryptographic pro- amount using the compensation device, the ability to con-
tection. These documents will allow to effectively account trol the final trip fare is retained after a passenger exit the
a limited number of trips, and ticket price can be deter- vehicle, i.e. it can also be carried out at the stop.
mined at sale at the ticket office or self-service stand.
3.4  Synchronizing the System Elements
3.3  Electronic Ticket The selected system configuration and use of the electronic
Electronic ticket is formed by the validator and recorded on ticket allow to minimize the need for synchronization of
the card; it should include the following information: the the system elements. So the validators require only the
vehicle number; the route number and destination; the initial (before running) initialization by timestamp and
stop number of pick-up (fare payment); timestamp on the vehicle and route parameters. Further, all devices
the fare payment; trip debit cost. can work practically in stand-alone mode. At the end of
“Tariff ”fight against the abuse by passengers. To the work shift, the validators transfer the consolidated
increase the convenience of controlling the fare pay- data on the received amount of fare and the repayment
ments, this system can be integrated with other automated of excess amount for each category of passengers via the
accounting systems of the passenger traffic. In addition, vehicle network to the Traffic Calculations Center, where
in order to solve this issue on suburban transport, you the final fare figures are calculated for each category of
may apply the following tariff system, which takes into passengers. A controller is used to connect all the vali-
account the following facts: dators in a single network; it performs control and data
–– the vast majority of passenger trips in the suburban collection. The controller includes a GSM or other mobile
transport is carried out between two stations; communication module, as well as the GPS-module for
–– in 95% of cases, if the passenger arrived from point A determining the precise coordinates of a vehicle and
to point B by defined transport, he would return by time. The controller receives commands from the Control
the same transport; Center and sends the collected data. The entire informa-
–– in most cases one of these points is a station in the tion exchange between the elements of the system (both
city or regional scale, where the ticket control can be by wired and wireless communication channels) is per-
organized at the exit from the station; formed in a protected cryptographic form18.
–– fare controllers work on the routes, and the passengers
do not know their schedule of checks. 3.5  Existing Automated System Description
Based on the above, the fare should be 1.5-1.8 times The integrated automated fare control system on
higher for the trip between two “new” stops than the fare public transport in Tyumen (Russia) is an effec-
for travel between the same stations in the previous ticket, tive example of the system implementation. The fare
but in back direction. That is, if the passenger constantly control automation tasks on the urban transport are

4 Vol 9 (47) | December 2016 | www.indjst.org Indian Journal of Science and Technology
 Andrey V. Gusev and Veniamin V. Sergeev

solved by the Tyumen Transportation System (TTS)

Company. The functions of the processing company
are the following: organization of work on the imple-
mentation and use of the automated fare collection
system on the urban public transport; organization
of the fare system on the urban public transport (the
billing); technical and server maintenance of the
automated fare collection system on the urban public
transport, information support; equipping the public
passenger transport with terminals; travel cards issue;
training of fare conductors and dispatchers of the
transport companies; daily data collection on passen- Figure 3.  Fare Payment Decomposition.
ger traffic on routes, a number of carried passengers,
including the concessionary ones, with differentia- In working with customers, the TTS uses a number of
tion on specific concessionary categories. The key hardware and software instruments. To register the fact of a
business processes are shown in Figure 2. trip by a card user and (or) fare, bus conductors (drivers) use
bus validator (POS payment terminals, such as NewPOS 8110
and NewPOS 8210 with software developed by the RLine com-
pany (http://rline.pro)). To ensure the necessary framework
of replenishing cards issued by the TTS, card replenishment
terminals (self-service stands) are used, which are installed at
bus shelters and city offices. The replenishment terminals are a
hardware and software complex consisting of a personal com-
puter and connected peripherals (a cash acceptor, a thermal
printer with a fiscal registrar, a contactless reader, etc.) and the
Payment System software. The Payment System is software
that enables the payment system to accept fares through the
self-service terminals, websites and mobile applications. The
implementation of the Fares Module is shown in Figure 3.

4.  Discussion
Figure 2.  Key Business Processes Diagram.
On the basis of information supplied by the automated system,
the transport company will be able to plan the transporta-
Currently, the TTS issues the following kinds of tion process, to compensate for the cost of transportation of
the travel cards: (1) a personalized (private) travel card the concessionary travelers, to improve service quality and to
“Concessionary”, which allows the holder to receive free reduce transaction costs19. The measures will eventually elimi-
or reduced fare on public transport throughout the ser- nate the risks of opportunistic behavior in the forms of ex ante
vice territory; (2) a personalized travel card “Pensioner”, and ex post, while uncertainty of the business processes is lim-
which allows the holder to carry out free travel on ited by established scopes of control20. The system takes into
public transport in the city; (3) a personalized travel account a variety of fares by means of transportation: tram,
card “Schoolboy”, which allows the holder to receive a trolley, bus, metro, taxi, shuttle, city route (by writing off cer-
discount of 80% of the fare on public transport; (4) a per- tain fares); takes into account the different fares by the routes;
sonalized travel card “Student”, which allows the holder to considers the possibility / impossibility of using this or that
receive a discount of 50% of the fare on public transport concession for different types of carriage in different groups
in the city; (5) a non-personalized travel card “General”, of the transport companies. Analysis of the main advantages
which allows the holder to receive a discount on public and disadvantages of the electronic fare control and collection
transport. systems in urban transport is given in Table 2.

Vol 9 (47) | December 2016 | www.indjst.org Indian Journal of Science and Technology 5
 Public Transportation Automated Fare Collection Systems Design

Table 2.  Electronic Passenger Traffic Accounting Systems SWOT Analysis

Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Accounting (Registration) Fare Cards
Advantages Disadvantages
Low cost of a card manufacture, issue and registration; Limited use of an accounting card;
Simple process of issuing cards to concessionary travelers; Provision complexity of the combined concessions for
Information and technical infrastructure is more flexible than certain categories of passengers;
for the payment cards; Need to develop a significant amount of technical standards
Possibility of local processing for the needs of a certain city (or for the operation of the system;
region); Need to create an appropriate framework
Easy settlement system between parties
Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Accounting Fare Cards with Various Applications (Multiple Cards)
Advantages Disadvantages
Ability to select applications to be activated on cards; Limited use of an accounting card;
Universal system of contracts and payments; Provision complexity of the combined concessions for
Ability to use a single ticket (one card) in various means of certain categories of passengers;
transport; Need to develop a significant amount of technical standards
Ability to personalize the card to provide a repayment in case for the operation of the system;
of loss or theft of the card (the card is placed in the Stop List Need to create an appropriate framework
and blocked)

For transport companies, the use of the contactless concessionary travelers; this is a very important aspect
cards can improve service for passengers and gives the for those authorities that implement the appropriate
following features: a significant reduction in equipment support of the population and contribute to their mobil-
maintenance costs; reduction of issue and conversion ity in the region. The proposed solution for the design
costs of tickets due to the longer service period of the of the automated fare collection and control system for
cards; the ability to conduct a flexible tariff policy, as public transport gives you a clear understanding of the
the introduction of new types of tickets or tariff tables areas for further process optimization, where the main
is performed only by software. This makes it possible to problem is data synchronization in stand-alone opera-
increase the transport company’s revenues at a given level tion periods, as well as the introduction of the integrated
of tariffs due to the optimization of the fare structure and banking product platforms.
policy; to increase revenue due to the accurate accounting
of the number of trips by passengers entitled to discount
or free travel; to increase revenue by eliminating counter- 6.  References
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