Interoperability happens to pave the way for innovation. A unified ticketing network with pooled resources can help with investment in technologies that would go on to typically go beyond the means of one operator. This investment can go ahead and create operational efficiencies, push new streams of revenue, and also help secure major payments as well as passenger movement data. This goes on to aid in creating a seamless, accessible, as well as inclusive ticketing network that goes on to meets the needs of all passengers.
Let us explore the trends that happen to have the potential to redefine and enhance the ticketing experience when it comes to both operators and the passengers they serve.
Placing the user experience first
It is indeed imperative to remember that the user experience is not solely defined by the technology available. Apparently, inclusivity, accessibility, as well as affordability must remain the fundamental pillars of any kind of transit offer. Right from accepting a range of fare media to flexible ticketing choices that can be adapted so as to meet unique needs, networks must go on to take into consideration all demographics that may go on to make use of their service.
A unified ticketing offer happens to go a long way when it comes to advancing accessibility. One single ticketing scheme that helps in the facilitating travel on all modes of transport happens to simplify the process in case of passengers, who can now move quite seamlessly between operators. Another way to elevate accessibility is by bringing uniformity to signage as well as stations. Right from signage at stations as well as on the vehicles to the digital interfaces customers make use of so as to purchase as well as validate their tickets and the fare descriptions they use in order to decide on the appropriate ticket, uniformity goes on to help in order to reassure travelers, specifically those who are vulnerable or even less confident. This, hence, helps build ridership by way of providing a seamless as well as trusted service.
Modernized payment solutions
In the gamut of a unified ticketing system, passengers should be able to flow seamlessly across any network. When in case of moving between numerous different modes of transport, passengers have to feel confident that they happen to be having the right ticket as well as also have been charged the right amount for the journey they intend to make. This means that more and more intricate scenarios must be looked into, as passengers can as well make multiple journeys through different operators. At the end of the travel, they then must be charged the right amount for the mix of services that are used. Emerging ideas like Mobility-as-a-Service- MaaS happen to be compounding this challenge, placing together public and private mobility offers along with the different sales as well as the communication channels that each of them run on.
Besides this, passengers also need to be able to pay through their preferred payment means by way of any sales channel within the system. From contactless cards as well as mobile wallets to real-time account-to-account transfers, which are also known as instant payment, fast payment, or even Central Bank Digital Currencies- CBDCs, the number of varied and distinct ways to make the payment continues to increase. Succeeding in the exact integration of payments with numerous merchants as well as service providers happens to be a challenge. And amongst all, it is indeed crucial to remember that certain set of demographics will still want to make use of cash. Taking this choice away may as well leave those who are unbanked or don’t have a compatible smart device, hence having no way to access a network.
Blockchain as well as Tokenization
Safeguarding an ever-increasing number of travel taps as well as digital payments sans compromising on the user privacy can go on to be quite a major challenge in the case of increasingly connected systems. By leveraging blockchain technologies, networks can go ahead and protect transactions with high security as well as auditability.
Besides this, by way of turning information like passenger’s card details, passenger profiles, as well as their travel preferences into a token, networks can go ahead and shield potentially sensitive data pertaining to a transaction, which itself means that in a scenario of a breach, no personal data gets exposed to fraudsters, thereby protecting both the integrity of the passenger’s information as well as the reputation when it comes to the transit operator. This approach goes on to push data security, enshrines secrecy in a unified ticketing data sharing model, and also goes ahead and promotes controlled openness of data in compliance with local privacy laws. All these factors, in a way, facilitate enhanced passenger trust within a network.
Artificial Intelligence
The usage of artificial intelligence, or AI, has been at the heart of debates throughout almost every connected ecosystem, and the fact is that ticketing is no different. In a sector that relies on massive amounts of data, AI happens to have the power to analyze real-time travel as well as payment events, and network resource usage so as to identify any kind of major trends or issues as they go on to happen.
All of this has the potential to offer networks unparalleled levels when it comes to insight to make sure that their focus happens to be in the right place at the right time, thereby leveraging the passenger journey so as to provide smooth travel scenarios. From capacity planning as well as system monitoring to fare revenues teamed with budgeting refinement, stakeholders can get empowered to make right, data-led decisions so as to make sure that their transit network keeps enhancing.
There are indeed notable challenges that need to be overcome while using AI. Primarily, networks must go on to have full confidence in the security of their chosen AI tool. They cannot take the risk of compromising the data of their own operations or, for that matter, their passengers, specifically if it relates to any kind of personal, commercially sensitive, or financial data. A network must also make sure that its infrastructure is indeed capable of handling such a massive volume of data or risk the overall system going down.
Digital identity
Digital identity steps happen to be growing around the world, with stakeholders putting in efforts to build the required infrastructure so as to process as well as manage large amounts of personal data. The EU Digital Identity- EUDI Wallet, for instance, aims to have 80% of citizens aboard on to its eID solution by the end of this decade. Transport service providers can make use of this infrastructure in order to go ahead and create seamless onboarding processes that validate the identities of users quickly as well as easily.
Notably, this seamless identification process goes on to enable the networks to address one of the most generic limitations of most tap-and-go transit solutions, which is the inability to grant concessionary fares, and that too seamlessly. By way of integrating digital identity infrastructure, the ticketing network can rapidly and easily validate any kind of concession a passenger happens to be eligible for and make use of them automatically. This makes sure that the passenger gets the right fare available to them sans any friction.
Moreover, eID solutions help in strengthening trusted delegation throughout a transit network. By way of using strong authentication in order to have secure access to filtered data, networks reinforce privacy management protocols. This also enables them to share the GDPR compliance burden with trusted partners who happen to specialize in the field. This helps in freeing-up time as well as resources for a network so as to focus on delivering outstanding services to passengers.
