By This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | nfcworld.com | February 23rd, 2013 | Last updated 23 February 2013, 15:46
82% of participants felt that the NFC bus ticketing system was better than the current subscription-based system and 88% felt that it was a good way to be able to pay for their journeys.
MALAGA: NFC tickets used for 7,500 bus journeys during trial
Orange and the City of Málaga have released the results of an NFC ticketing pilot that has been running in the Spanish city since February 2012.
"The extremely conclusive results of this initial test show that the possibility of purchasing and validating transport tickets using a mobile phone is on the verge of becoming a commercial reality," says Orange. "The ability to top-up your ticket immediately using your mobile phone, anytime and anywhere, as well as being able to store everything on your handset and the user-friendliness of the service, all got the thumbs up."
Some 110 users who took part in the pre-commercial pilot were able to use an NFC-enabled feature phone as their transport ticket on any EMT Málaga bus, all of which were equipped to handle NFC transactions, using an EMT-Orange mobile wallet. NFC tags were also installed at more than 700 bus stops, informing passengers of how soon the next bus will arrive.
All of the trial's participants were frequent public transport users. 48% were women, and 52% were men. 88% of users were aged between 20 and 40.
Key findings from the pilot, Orange says, included:
Participants used NFC tickets for more than 7,500 journeys during the 10 month trial.The NFC tags at bus stops were used more than 3,000 times during the pilot.The average score given to the service was 8.2 out of 10.82% of participants felt that this system was better than the current subscription-based system, and 88% felt that it was a good way to be able to pay for their journeys.94% would like to continue using the system, and have already recommended it to their friends and family.49% of top-ups were made outside of ticket office opening hours.Despite the pre-commercial nature of the experiment, with a success rate of over 99% for ticket cancellations and more than 98% for top-ups, the service proved reliable.The main areas for improvement concern the expansion of the service to smartphones and increasing the range of tickets available.Oberthur, Indra, Samsung and Transermobile worked with Orange and EMT Málaga on the project.