Digital ticket to ride
Public transport gets me from home to work and back again. Every day, the 415 pulls up at my stop, I board, acknowledge the bus driver and pull out my metroCARD.
Recently, I swiped my trusty blue plastic against the validator, it beeped indignantly, flashed a red light and read ‘Card balance low’.
There was only $2.73 to my name, which isn’t enough for a full fare at any time of the day. Thankfully, the sympathetic bus driver let me ride to Salisbury Interchange where I topped up at one of the few ticket vending machines along the Gawler Central line. While I frantically added credit to my account, I almost missed my connecting bus.
Even for a regular public transport user, this was an extremely annoying inconvenience. How would someone who rarely uses public transport cope? What about a visitor or tourist? They’d probably struggle.
As we set our sights on Adelaide becoming a more connected, liveable and smart city, let’s take a trip around the world to see how other transport networks are making their systems more accessible for users.
Ticketing apps
Conductors punching holes in paper tickets and bus passes with stamps were the norm when I first started catching public transport. In the 1980s they were replaced with magnetic strip tickets, including the popular multi-trips, and later the metroCARD.
Digital is the next step in the evolution of public transport ticketing.
Saskatoon Transit in Saskatchewan, Canada introduced the TGo fare payment system in 2021. This all-in-one experience allows passengers to purchase a range of tickets, including single, day and monthly passes, and keep them on a smartphone app. They just scan their mobiles on a validator when boarding. The same ticket can be transferred to other routes.
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