Tackling the Big Challenges Facing Public Transport in 2023

Philippe Vappereau, General Manager at Calypso Networks Association (CNA), identifies four potential pain points that public transport authorities (PTAs) and operators (PTOs) must navigate this year for longevity, but these are distributed at a much lower scale. Nonetheless, mobile ticketing can cut carbon footprints further by enabling passengers to purchase and store tickets on their existing devices, reducing demand for physical tickets for each journey.

Managing chip shortages

Chip shortages continue globally and across industries as production continues to recover from the pandemic. None are immune to the impact of the global shortages and subsequent higher prices, but networks should ensure their supply of smart cards and chips come via multiple sources, so that they are not wholly dependent on one proprietary vendor.

Avoid oversimplifying ticketing

This might sound a strange final point, given our shared goal to help provide seamless ticketing for passengers, but we have to recognise that in public transport, one size does not fit all.

Passengers may travel at different intervals, using different modes of transport, and with their own preferences on paying for and storing their tickets. We do ourselves a disservice if we try to pretend that ticketing is simple, as these are all factors that must be accounted for when designing a sustainable ticketing network.

Public transport is an industry that always faces its challenges. Winning customers away from private vehicles and onto public transport services is a hard battle, particular in recent years. Further challenges are not just on the horizon, they are here today. But ours is a resourceful industry and there are solutions that can help support sustainable services. Here are what I see as four of the main priorities in public transport ticketing.

Inflation and the cost of living

Inflation and cash-strapped passengers presents challenges to networks that need to maintain essential services, without putting up prices or cutting services that help local economies to function.

Some networks have pivoted hard in the other direction to help meet this customer need. Last year, Germany offered passengers single tickets for all modes of city and regional transport, for one month, for just €9 each. The scheme has been followed by a new ‘Deutschlandticket’, giving access to short and medium distance journeys on trains and busses for just €1.60 per day. The Spanish government is offering free travel, for locals and tourists, on various journeys run by its state-owner operator, in a big to help reduce the impact of the cost of living on its economy.

Some authorities may find long-term success with this formula, but for others this would be unsustainable. Instead, networks must enable flexible fares, designed to handle less predictable passenger behaviours. Open standards affordably enable passengers to access a mix of every tariff type, including new mobility (MaaS) services that help facilitate door-to-door travel and encourage users away from costly private vehicle use.

Promoting greener journeys

Many passengers are willing to use public transport to help reduce their carbon footprint. But networks must do more to be as environmentally friendly as possible. One obvious area is with physical ticketing, particularly as a large percentage of tickets are single use. The vast scale at which these are distributed, individually, whether paper or plastic, produces high volumes of waste.

So, what can we do? Dematerialise; offer a way for passengers to purchase tickets without the need to use disposable materials. This is not important for networks’ ESG responsibilities, but can help win over environmentally-conscious passengers. A report last year found 60 per cent of us are consciously adjusting our habits to be more environmentally friendly, so ticketing must respond accordingly.

It’s important to maintain passenger inclusion via reusable tickets designed

For example, an urban setup cannot translate directly to a rural setup, where passenger behaviours are typically less regular and predictable. Implementations in the Western world do not always translate directly to networks in Asia, where payment preferences vary significantly.

The future of ticketing does not simply lie in choosing open- or closed-loop solutions. It is likely that a careful mix of open-loop (typically via EMV® bank card payments) and closed-loop ticketing (such as with a Calypso card) will provide the high level of choice and flexibility that passengers demand.

New Zealand is exploring nationwide open loop systems, but questions remain about whether such systems exclude passengers if no other ticketing options are provided.

Open loop on its own cannot achieve the political needs diverse communities and it shouldn’t try to replace closed-loop. Instead, it must look at how and where it adds value to current systems.

Successful ticketing strategies will be a mix of open- and closed-loop ticketing, providing security, convenience and most importantly choice to passengers. Using open standards and avoiding the trap of trying to oversimplify ticketing, will enable PTAs and PTOs to retain control of their network, while facilitating access to critical data that can help them further refine and evolve their offer in the future.