Fare collection
cities around the globe, making public transport more convenient while giving operators a detailed picture of traffic patterns and helping them to tailor their products and services more closely to individuals and demographic groups. Yet the application of smartcard technology at a national level is still relatively unusual.
The Netherlands led the field with
OV-Chipkaart which despite some significant teething problems and cost overruns is now in use with public transport operators across the country. Netherlands Railways (NS) will phase out paper ticketing entirely by the end of this year, adopting OV-Chipkaart for all fares.
Another leader in national public transport smartcards is Denmark, whose Rejsekort system is now in the final stages of implementation. Unlike OV-Chipkaart, the development and implementation of the Danish system is being overseen by a joint company, Rejsekort A/S, a collaborative venture in which nearly all of the country’s public transport operators own a stake. “The idea was to have one system, one concept, one core brand, and one set of service processes,” explains Mr Gregers Mogensen, chief consultant for Rejsekort A/S. “We already had a limited form of interoperability in paper-based ticketing, so we wanted to continue and expand the concept through a common card.” In 2005 Rejsekort A/S awarded a turnkey contract to the East-West Consortium led by Thales and Accenture to supply and install the system, and operate and maintain it until 2018. Thales has supplied the fare collection system including ticketing equipment, security, and back-office systems. Hosting for back-office systems is being provided by IBM SDC. Annual operating and maintenance costs are expected to be around DKr 215m ($US 37.7m) two years after full deployment, falling to DKr 200m in 2023. Rejsekort continues with the existing
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Danish national smartcard C
Denmark is one of the first countries in the world to implement contactless smartcard technology on a national scale. Keith Barrow looks at the challenges and successes of the Rejsekort project.
ONTACTLESS fare collection has become an everyday fact of life for millions of people in
A cyclist checks in for his train journey using his Rejsekort smartcard.
zonal system, but customers no longer need to be aware of zonal boundaries because the system automatically calculates the fare from the distance between the check-in and check-out points. As there are no ticket barriers on the public transport network in Denmark, users are required to check in and check out at separate terminals located in stations or onboard buses. The card currently only has pay-as-you- go functionality, although the range of fare options may increase as usage is expanded. Three card types are currently
offered. The Personal card can be purchased by a child, an adult, or a pensioner, and can only be used by the cardholder. This card offers the highest level of discounts, intended to incentivise regular use, and can only be used by a single registered cardholder. The Flexible card is also registered to a specific customer but can shared between users and offers smaller discounts, while the Anonymous card can be used by any passenger without registration but the value cannot be
recovered if the card is lost or stolen. The Personal and Flexible cards can be purchased online and together with the Anonymous card at more than 400 locations across Denmark.
Machines at railway stations allow users to top up their cards, view their account balance and recent transactions, check-in for group travel, or buy an Anonymous card. Further services are available on the website, which allows users to calculate the price of a journey, view travel history, and top up cards. Following the completion of a small- scale pilot in 2009, the system has been progressively rolled out across the Danish public transport network, but like OV-Chipkaart, Rejsekort has not been without its teething troubles. The full rollout was due to be completed by December 2010 and when the initial deadline was missed the then transport minister Mr Hans Christian Schmidt threatened to terminate the project. Last year the government was accused of suppressing details of a report carried out by US IT consultancy Gartner which was critical of the
IRJ May 2013
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