NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – The new account-based ticketing system under development for the Australian state of Queensland remains on track and on budget to be fully rolled out by 2022, despite the challenges of working through the Covid-19 pandemic, Martin Bradshaw, project head and general manager for passenger transport strategy and technology for transit agency TransLink, told NFC Times through a spokesman.
The AU$371.1 million (US$279 million) Smart Ticketing project will enable TransLink to calculate fares in the back office, not on the card and terminal, giving the agency more flexibility to introduce a range of payments types or “tokens” for customers to use. That will include contactless EMV credit and debit cards, smartphones and wearables and TransLink’s existing closed-loop payments service, the go card, which is being expanded. The tokens could even include driver’s licenses and student IDs, according to Bradshaw. The state has already added contactless chips to its driver’s licenses.
“This flexibility also extends to the delivery of new products, which can be built and applied to customers' accounts, opening the way to expansion to additional mobility providers,” said Bradshaw through the spokesman for TransLink, which is a division of the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads. This means that the planned Smart Ticketing system could one day enable payments for such third-party mobility providers as bike and scooter rental agencies and car-share companies as part of a mobility-as-a-service platform. Customers will also be able to continue to use paper tickets to pay for public transport.
