From tokens to AFCs and back to cash – the evolution of fare collection systems
As technology advanced, you were able to buy paper tickets or tokens from either the attendant clerk at the station, or an unassuming self-service vending machine. This simple transaction was actually more meaningful than it appeared; it was in fact the birth of automated fare collection (AFC) systems.
From tokens to AFCs and back to cash – the evolution of fare collection systems
Once upon a time, when you wanted to take the bus or the subway, you paid the fare direct to the driver. That was the original fare collection system.
As technology advanced, you were able to buy paper tickets or tokens from either the attendant clerk at the station, or an unassuming self-service vending machine. This simple transaction was actually more meaningful than it appeared; it was in fact the birth of automated fare collection (AFC) systems.
Tickets and tokens have now been replaced in many places by magnetic swipe cards (or stripe cards as they’re also known) – a technology most popular on the backs of credit cards, as well as identity cards. For the transportation sector the swipe technology offers the combined convenience of multi-trip tickets with built-in access control, and electronic payment functionality.
But the truly avant-garde are now using contactless smart cards as part of their fare collection system. These handy cards made their debut in Hong Kong in 1997, as the Octopus Card, and have since spread in popularity, as well as functionality (beyond a fare payment method for mass transit). In fact, they are now the standard in many AFC systems around the world.
Others, of course, prefer to use e-wallet functions on their smartphone.
And yet, no matter how much technology evolves, elements of the old always remain. A large number of passengers will always prefer the old-fashioned route of a simple ticket transaction, purchased with a little pocket change.
So while passengers can now benefit from all sorts of payment and accessibility modes, mass transit providers must be able to meet their growing demands to keep traffic flowing, customers happy, and their own coffers filled.
That is why it is absolutely essential that transport operators have a ticket vending machine, as part of its fare collection system, that is able to accept any form of payment that consumers of today are using whether it’s old-fashioned cash or credit cards, debit cards, smart cards, or contactless cards.
In addition to low-tech actions like making change, and delivering hardcopy tickets, it should be able to recharge smart cards and smartphone/e-wallet ticketing apps, and provide travellers with all the modern convenience that keeps both people and business in motion.