Strategies for integrated and smart ticketing in public transport
Smart mobility strategies are the new focus areas in urban transport planning. With cities focusing on implementing multimodal integration, integrated and smart ticketing become indispensable for public transport (PT) agencies. Hence, PT agencies across the country are moving towards smart applications like smart ticketing for easy transfers, improve passenger experience and to bring operational efficiencies. Towards this initiative, Government of India has also introduced the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC). However, adoption of these measures has not been very high in some cases as these directly impact user groups. The hesitance to move to measures such as smart fare cards, mobile ticketing, etc. by various user groups maybe due to various reasons. This may include fear of adopting technology, lack of access to smart phones, etc. depending on the nature of strategies and characteristics of user groups. Therefore, it is important to understand how receptive the passengers are to various strategies, understand the barriers and identify means to overcome these barriers. This will help in identifying smart ticketing strategies which are favoured by user groups and therefore have high potential for success.
