LTA looking to develop hands-free payment on buses, trains

SINGAPORE — Commuters are now a step closer to being able to board a bus or take the train without having to fumble for their fare cards, after the Land Transport Authority (LTA) today (Nov 18) called a Request for Information (RFI) exercise seeking the industry’s views on a “hands free” Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) system.

LTA said it will use the information gathered from the exercise to develop requirements for a proof-of-concept trial by the end of next year.

Based on the RFI document seen by TODAY, the LTA is considering two concepts: Walk In Walk Out which allows the presence of the commuter to be detected at the entry and exit of the system, or Be In Be Out where the presence of the commuter is tracked throughout the system to determine the fare that he has to pay.

The start of the RFI exercise came about three months after LTA launched a trial - in partnership with Singtel, Sony, EZ-Link, NETS and TransitLink - where 200 participants will use a smartband encoded with a digital CEPAS card to pay for their bus and rail journey by holding their wrists to the fare card readers. Both the trial and the RFI exercise will end on Feb 29.

The RFI document stated that the envisaged system will use a medium “such as a contactless media, mobile smart phone or similar device to track commuters’ movement through the rail and bus transit system”. It said the rail transit system will be gated with its barriers in “normally open state “. These will close when “an invalid or no-ticketing intrusion” is detected. On buses, alerts will be sent to the bus driver when such instances occur.

Commuters TODAY spoke to welcomed the idea. Public relations associate Angeline Wong, 24, recounted how there were times when she had to miss the train because she could not get her fare card out of her bag in time.

Ms Crystal Huang, a 56-year-old human resource executive, however, pointed out that the “hands free” system might result in some inconvenience. “Now I can see how much money (is left) in my EZ-Link card, but with this system, does it mean that I always have to check the stored value at the control station?,” she said.

Other commuters wondered if the system could deduct money from multiple smart cards or devices which a person is carrying. “Will I be paying twice for a trip if I have my ATM card and EZ-Link card with me?” said Ms Hui Shan, a 23-year-old research assistant.

Dr Walter Theseira, a senior lecturer at SIM University (UniSIM), said that a “hands free” system would be ideal for Singapore as the vast majority of commuters already pay for their trips using contactless cards. Otherwise, there will be a bottleneck at the entrance of buses with some commuters trying to pay by cash. “It’s a natural progression from the current system,” he said.

Agreeing, UniSIM adjunct associate professor Park Byung-joon said the system will help to smoothen the process of boarding during the peak hours.

Still, he felt it was not a development that would excite commuters. “I don’t think this is a major breakthrough to make commuters happy,” he said.