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Connecting public transport ticketing in Europe

An EU-funded project could make it possible for people to pay for public transport across Europe with the smartcard or app they use to hop on buses or trams at home, transforming and facilitating cross-border travel.

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Europeans enjoy free movement across the EU yet may find it problematic navigating public transport systems in other countries.

That could soon change thanks to the EU-funded ETC project, an initiative of several public transport e-ticketing schemes, organisations and technology providers to create seamless travel across the European Union.

The integration of different national ticketing systems as promoted by ETC means that travellers would be able to pay for public transport abroad using the card they use at home. As well as making public transport in other countries easier to use, the ETC scheme would offer real-time guidance for their journey. Expressly designed to work with existing e-ticketing infrastructures in EU countries, it also leaves people in control of travel preferences and privacy.

‘There is currently no European standard or integrated ticketing scheme that people can use to travel from one country to another,’ says ETC project coordinator Roel Testroote of the Accept Institute in the Netherlands. ‘The lack of integrated ticketing was seen as one of the issues to solve. We introduced an account-based system that resides next to the existing e-ticketing systems in the different countries. With this account-based system, it is possible to use your home account to travel in other countries.’

Positive pilot schemes

Researchers came up with a system that was tested across borders in the Aachen/Maastricht areas of Germany and the Netherlands, as well as in Luxembourg. Approximately 600 people participated in the pilots, providing mainly positive feedback about the practicality of travelling with just one account.

Existing systems and the business rules in the respective countries were not changed. In the Netherlands, for example, people are used to a pay-as-you-go system while travel in Germany is based upon a pre-paid ticket.

‘We did not try to standardise travel behaviour and yet it was still possible to travel in the Netherlands with pay-as-you-go and in Germany with a pre-paid ticket when we introduced our account-based ticketing system,’ says Testroote.

The account-based system runs parallel to the existing e-ticketing system in different countries. A small piece of software is added to existing e-ticketing equipment – an identifier stored on existing smartcards and software added to card readers in buses or entrance gates. These enable the smartcards to be read by different systems and information communicated back to the home account. In London for instance, people with contactless bank cards can now enter public transport and pay for their public transport.

A system based on trust

Account-based travelling does not mean that people have to provide their personal details to all transport operators they use.

‘The essential element is not knowledge but trust,’ says Testroote.

Transport operators must be able to trust that they will be paid for their service, whereas travellers must be able to trust that they remain in control of their own personal data, he adds. The idea is that once trust is established, the travel experience is improved.

Although transport operators are traditionally dominated by domestic transport needs and averse to innovation risks, ETC partners envisage that more and more of them will participate in the initiative and allow their customers to use accounts across borders. This, in turn, is likely to improve and speed up innovation and knowledge sharing. 

ETC set up a special not-for-profit institute to manage the interoperable cross-border transactions with national e-ticketing schemes and provide the necessary technology. Six different e-ticketing schemes are on the advisory board of the Accept institute. The three ETC pilots will continue and the concept is expected to be rolled out to include Belgium, leading to easier cross-border travel across the Benelux and Germany. Talks with other regions and countries are underway. 

ETC partners foresee that travellers across the EU will eventually be able to use a phone app, a travel smartcard or their contactless bank cards to access travel information, pay for rides and pass through ticket barriers in other countries as easily as they can back home.

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Project details

Project acronym
ETC
Project number
636126
Project coordinator: Netherlands
Project participants:
Austria
Germany
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Total cost
€ 4 500 000
EU Contribution
€ 4 500 000
Project duration
-

See also

More information about project ETC

All success stories

This story in other languages