Transit fare collection systems should be based on open standards, says OSPT Alliance

The Open Standard for Public Transportation (OSPT) Alliance has published an executive white paper to raise awareness of the value of implementing interoperable automated fare collection (AFC) systems based on open standards. The free to download white paper will be of interest to all stakeholders involved in advancing the capabilities, security and efficiencies of public transport ticketing systems.

The white paper, entitled ‘Shifting the Ticketing Paradigm – CIPURSE™ Brings Mobility and Security to Transit Ticketing Systems’, provides an executive overview of the AFC system landscape today and the opportunities currently available to establish an open standard infrastructure. It explains how an interoperable and vendor-neutral ecosystem will foster the next generation of secure, cost-effective and flexible fare collection technology and can promote innovation by offering other value-added mobile services, such as payment and security, to encourage customer loyalty and engagement.

The importance of vendor-neutral systems in securing public-private partnerships is also explored, with the paper highlighting that many private investors are unwilling to commit funds to projects that are dependent on a proprietary solution. 

“Across the technology landscape, the introduction of open standards and deployment of subsequent open solutions has encouraged innovation and new commercial opportunities,” explains OSPT Alliance Executive Director, Laurent Cremer. “There is growing consensus among program owners that fare collection technology is now mature enough to look beyond single source suppliers, and capitalize on multiple-partner projects that can better support digital services and be more flexible to future market demands. A more open environment will deliver real value and convenience to public transport users.”

The member-driven OSPT Alliance initiative has developed an open standard – CIPURSE™ – which offers an advanced foundation for developing highly secure, interoperable and flexible transit fare collection solutions. It is built on proven standards, including ISO 7816, AES-128 and ISO/IEC 14443-4 for securing multiple payment types. The standard supports flexible design and deployment alternatives for transit system integrators and consultants.

Laurent highlights that rather than considering fare collection card issuance as a cost of doing business, it is now time for program owners to view ticketing as an enabler of new revenue. The OSPT Alliance CIPURSE standard offers the right foundation to achieve this. He continues: “Public transit users are looking for services that are convenient, mobile and innovative. Today’s public transit operators have the ability to not only offer new digital services to its customers, but to share access to this engaged community with other interested parties. In such a dynamic environment, however, systems need to be future-proofed to enable transit organizations to efficiently and cost-effectively evolve without being tied into a single-source agreement. This is why CIPURSE is so important and will gain real traction in the coming years.”

As a next step, the OSPT Alliance will be releasing a comprehensive technical document that offers guidelines into how existing AFC systems can evolve to adopt the CIPURSE open standard.

To download the ‘Shifting the Ticketing Paradigm – CIPURSE Brings Mobility and Security to Transit Ticketing Systems’ white paper visit www.osptalliance.org.