Towards standards for account-based ticketing

Account Based Ticketing (ABT) could offer passengers a convenient tap-and-travel experience, with ticket fares and purchases automatically calculated and charged after the completion of a journey. But an integrated country-wide service needs to be designed around passenger needs rather than technology offers, says Cathryn Jones, Associate Director, SYSTRA

London’s account-based system is easy to use

London’s account-based system is easy to use

Londoners enjoy reliable, fare-capped travel

Londoners enjoy reliable, fare-capped travel

Tap in, tap out: London’s back end system works out the best fare

Tap in, tap out: London’s back end system works out the best fare

As Andrew Jones, former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, once noted: “When it comes to exploiting technology, transport in the UK has been at the cutting edge. But expectations are growing. With the explosion in mobile phone use and the advent of ever more powerful data networks, the public are entitled to assume that everything about their travel experience can and should be improved through technological innovation.”

Ease of payment for public transport is certainly an area where customer preferences and expectations are changing rapidly. Not having to worry about getting a ticket in advance is even better, and is what makes Account Based Ticketing (ABT) so potentially attractive. With ABT, for example in London, passengers simply tap their preferred fare media or token (card, phone, wearable) upon joining and leaving the train or tube (there is no tap out for buses as these run on a flat fare basis, irrespective of zones). Fares are then calculated and payment processed (after the journey has taken place) by the back-office systems. 

London in the lead

But fare structures and ticketing systems in other parts of the UK, and in many other countries, do not – as yet  – enable such convenient travel, even within a single mode. There is no doubt that technology is an enabler for transport, but we should not allow it to become a dictator, says Cathryn Jones, Associate Director, SYSTRA. “It’s far too easy to get led by the technology. Traveller ease should be at the heart of any discussion on what is needed from a ticketing system. We are in danger of being led by what technology can offer us instead of going back to first principles and getting technology to deliver what passengers want, rather than what suppliers may wish to offer us.”

Thanks to advances in computing power and database management, the speed of internet services and high levels of smartphone and contactless credit/debit card usage, transport providers are poised to innovate, notes Jones. “But we need to have a discussion first; to look at the ticketing schemes that exist, for example in London, at the aspirations from Transport for the North (TfN), from Wales and from the Midlands. There is a danger that we end up with siloed schemes that won’t be interoperable or ubiquitous, but will instead form isolated islands of technology.” This should not be encouraged to happen, she says.

Years ago, notes Jones, the industry came together around the emergence of smart cards, and out of that discussion came ITSO. “It may not be perfect, but we can be sure that a senior citizen can use her card equally well in both Cornwall and Newcastle. It works,” says Jones. “And we have a similar opportunity now, as an industry, to ensure that account-based ticketing works across the country, rather than ending up with individual or proprietary systems embedded in particular regions. There is a great deal of work to be done to reach this point, and I am asking whether we should be looking at national standards. Thanks to its unique governance structure, London has a head start, yet other regions may not have the same leverage as London when it comes to suppliers. But if we work together, then potentially it will be easier to get to the same level.”

People know and trust contactless payments, but paying for a multi-modal journey across zones is considerably more complex than paying for a cup of coffee. The UK’s Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators, is currently seeking passengers’ views in a major consultation into rail fares, and the Bus Services Act is focused on the better use of open data to simplify and better communicate bus fares to the travelling public, so ‘offering the convenience of the digital world’ to bus users.

But we do need to be careful not to take away the fares that people know and like, says Jones. Peak and off peak are generally well understood by frequent rail travellers, as is split ticketing, which is appealing albeit highly complex. “Attracting new users to public transport means that we need to make the experience as easy as possible, but there is always going to be a range of choices for the customer.” What matters, adds Jones, is that the data available from the back office is interoperable and accessible via formats that enable app developers to create user-friendly front-ends for customers. 

Creating trust

We may not understand how fares are calculated outside familiar areas, and people living on the fringe of a zone served by an account-based ticketing system need to be assured that they can travel in and out of that zone with equal ease. What is important is to create the trust that allows the customer to understand that the system charges them the best available fare for their journey, capping travel fares over a daily or weekly basis. “We have an opportunity to make things work better; to make sure that we can link up regional schemes in the future and avoid creating a range of ticketing silos,” says Jones.

Account-based ticketing services for basic public transport systems must be anonymous, but users may wish to register for a richer travel experience, for example subscription-based schemes such as Mobility as a Service, or sharing schemes where the user is handed the ‘key’ to an asset, be it a bike or a car. Again, this will be a choice, says Jones. Basic travel data from ABT is stored in the cloud. The card or device that enables access is simply a user identifier matched to an anonymous account in a centralised system. Every time the ‘ticket’ is used, on a ‘pay as you go’ basis, it is recorded in the system and the user is charged accordingly.

Behavioural change theory tells us that people are not always rational, and that despite the obvious benefit to the end user, any ABT strategy will stand or fall on trust. London users ‘trust’ the system to allocate the right fare for the right journey as long as they tap in and out correctly on the tube, but are noticeably more nervous about using the longer distance trains that are being integrated into the service. Building trust between a user and the operator is no small task, and should be considered as equal to the planning and technological challenges. ‘Passengers should be central to any debate about what is needed from a ticketing system. We need to encourage them to just get on to public transport and not worry about the fares. Back offices need rules and standards. If we don’t get this right from the passengers’ point of view, then we will miss a huge opportunity to attract more people to use public transport.’

Cathryn Jones, Associate Director, SYSTRA, will be speaking at Smarter Travel LIVE!