Developments in transit fare policy reform

Abstract

Transit providers around the world are progressively migrating from automatic fare collection systems to state-of-the-art contactless smartcard systems. The introduction of this new technology provides a unique opportunity for transit agencies to review fares and ticketing policy and leverage the full functionality of these new ticketing systems. Research being undertaken at the University of Queensland seeks to develop recommendations on potential fares and ticketing policy reform using contactless smartcard technologies. Recent experience indicates that introduction of many of the new ticketing systems have been technology- rather than policy-driven. The fare structure is basically a relationship between fare levels and distance travelled, including flat, distance based, time-based and zonal fare structures. Transit fares policy results from trade-offs between competing objectives, such as economic, social or political, but examples of actual policies are extremely hard to find. The availability of new smartcard technology provides the opportunity to provide a 'closed' fare collection system, without physical barriers, allowing more differentiated fare structures based on distance travelled. In addition, there are significant opportunities for integrated ticketing and product innovation.

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