Contactless media for urban transport services

Brian DobsonFuture Ticketing Technology ManagerTransport for London

Oyster today

• Complete multi-operator, multi-mode smart integrated ticketing system

• 46m cards produced (20K new per day)

• Accepted on all TfL & TOC rail services & all bus services within London

• Used for 83% of all trips –main non-Oyster usage is Train & Bus travellers from outside London.

1

Big picture – where we have got to

• Contactless smart ticketing has delivered the business case– High gate throughput prevents bottlenecks

constraining ridership growth on rail– Fast boarding time minimises bus fleet

sizes and drives up appeal of bus vs. car– Fraud has been hammered

• But Oyster has issues:– Expense is uncomfortably high given TfL’s

need to reduce operating expenditure– Customer experience is far from perfect

• Could we do this even better?

2

Majority of public transport fares come from infrequent or irregular customers

3

“Commuters”“Non-commuters”

Oyster isn’t the perfect offering for these customers – some things could be better``• ISO14443 standard contactless – fast &

intuitive• Pay As You Go travel with daily capping –

intuitive product that eliminates ticket purchase as a barrier to travel & drives up ridership

• Fare Data stored on the card – makes it difficult to maintain and offer new Products

• Stored value purse on card – “non-commuters” have to invest time in managing PAYG balances and weekly season tickets

• Oyster is London-specific – many visitors don’t have it

4

Keep

Keep

Change

Change

Change

Managing e-purses = changing currency at the border

5

Welcome to London! – Eurostar passengers switching to the Underground at St Pancras

There is a credible contactless alternative emerging in the UK payments market

• Use ISO14443 standards• Funds held in debit or

credit account, not on card

• Source of most customers’ funds, so no need for pre-loading

• Available UK-wide & internationally

6

But fare collection is different from retail payments – can PAYG be made to work?

Canary Wharf

25k people per hour@ <0.5 seconds each

7

But the industry’s CP transaction rules won’t work for urban transport fare collection

8

General CP rules Challenges implicit in transport PAYG

Price is known beforethe card is presented

Price not known until rail journey iscompleted (or end-of-day if capped)

Use of card counters to manage risk & occasionally fall-forward to Chip & PIN

• Throughput needs set maximum acceptable transaction time of 500ms

• No PIN pads on transit infrastructure

Terminal field is activated manually bystore staff

Neither staff nor time to manually activate terminal field for each customer

Happily, the UK banks have developed a new transport transaction model

9

General CP rules Agreed new rules for transport PAYG

Price is known beforethe card is presented

Each tap is £0, then operator back-office calculates price daily

Use of card counters to manage risk & occasionally fall-forward to Chip & PIN

Operator manages risks to provide equivalent protection within the 500ms time limit:• Offline data authentication• Deny Lists (DLs) in terminals• Online auths from the back-

officeTerminal field is activated manually

Terminal field is always active to maximise throughput

This new approach is being formalised as a new set of rules for transport transactions

Visa, MasterCard and American Express are creating specific rule sets for transport merchants that cover these six areas

10

Card – terminal interaction

(500ms Limit)

Merchant intermediate

layer processing

Aggregation of journeys to daily

charges

Merchant DL processes

Liabilities & frequency of

authorisations

Mid-journey inspections

Principles under-pinning the new transport transaction model• Single model applicable for all urban transit

operators• Applicable to existing base of contactless cards• Protect throughput of passengers at peak times• Ensure Issuers can earn attractive volumes of

additional contactless interchange• Ensure Issuers take minimal additional risks• Ensure that customer statements clearly show daily

expenditures for each transit merchant• Optimise role of transit merchants in providing

customer service• Maximise fare revenues received by transit

operators11

The model brings benefits for customers and transport operators

Customers• Save time – “currency

exchange” eliminated• Save time – queues

reduced• Save time – interoperability12

Transport Operators• Issue fewer smartcards• Pay reduced commissions• Enjoy reduced customer

service burden���������� ������������������������ ������������������ ���������� ��������������������

Two pre-existing projects set the conditions for contactless credit & debit acceptance

• Replacement of 20,000 Oyster smartcard readers

– Production versions being installed

• Introduction of wireless 3G communications for Oyster on 8,500 buses

– Implementation underway

13

Changes make these “EMV ready”

Oyster system will be enhanced to accept contactless credit & debit cards on all modes

14

+

Contactless credit & debit cards = inter-urban interoperability for PAYG fare payment• Distributed by UK card issuers to

customers across the country• No city or regional distinctions• Supported by UK-wide marketing

and customer education• Very attractive product for

business or leisure travellers visiting other UK cities & towns on an occasional basis

• Importantly, requires transport operators to implement PAYG travel in a consistent manner to avoid customer confusion15

Is TfL Mobile NFC Ready?

• Validation Readers will accept ISO 14443 Card Emulation mode

• Support Contactless Credit and Debit applications • Will not support Pin entry – TRANSIT not RETAIL readers• MUST support high throughput – Response Target – 350ms

in near future• Need power for Exit after Entry – 3 hours• Suggested NFC ON/OFF switch to GSMA• 8,500 Buses ready in Spring 2012• Olympics 2012• Tube / TOC / Tram / Light Rail by end 2012• Significant interest by other UK Operators16

Broader uses of Mobile NFC

• Active contributor on NFC Forum White paper on NFC for Public Transport

• Covers Use Cases for Travel Information, Service Disruptions and Customer Services

• “I’m a Believer”• Pioneered provision of Live Data Feeds to allow

development of Mobile Apps on Tube service• Launching Bus Stop Countdown feeds this year• Looking at use of Smart Posters and secure Tags• London Transport Museum• We await Your NFC Handsets and Services17

Mobile NFC for Public Transport

• Thank you for listening

• Open to Questions and Comments

• Email – Brian.Dobson@tube.tfl.gov.uk

• www.nfc-forum/resources/white_papers

• www.tfl.gov.uk/businessandpartners/syndication

18