Transport policymakers across Europe seeking to emulate London’s public transport ticketing success should prioritise Mobile Pay-As-You-Go rather than investing in outdated Contactless technology, according to a new report from public transport expert Thomas Ableman.

While “London-style ticketing” has become an industry shorthand for simple and seamless multimodal travel, Ableman, who was formerly Director of Strategy and Innovation at Transport for London, highlights a key distinction between the customer proposition and the media used to deliver it. As public transport authorities across Europe invest to modernise their ticketing, the report warns that replicating London’s Contactless payment system would be an expensive and time-consuming missed opportunity.

Based on analysis of European best practice including countries such as Denmark and Switzerland, Stop Talking about London-Style argues that Mobile PAYG is instead more flexible, quicker to install, and considerably more cost-effective. One estimate shows Mobile PAYG schemes would cost less than 5% of the costs of an equivalent Contactless ticketing scheme.

Drawing on interviews with public transport ticketing experts from across Europe, the report concludes that most of the properties that make Contactless ticketing popular with the public apply to Mobile PAYG as well. What’s more, the need to use a token that people will always have with them is now best delivered through smartphones because in many countries such as the UK smartphones are carried by more people than contactless bank cards.

Thomas Ableman said: “London’s Contactless system was a wonder of the world when it was launched; deservedly one of the greatest global transport innovations of the 21st century. But things have changed since 2012. It’s now possible for customers to use a device they already carry; making it easier for them and saving multiples of millions of pounds in platform validators and ticket machines. Policymakers need to give customers current technology, not one from the previous cycle.

Transport authorities are custodians of public money and must not waste it by investing seven figure sums digging trenches and installing wiring when a better solution for their users is available.”

Paula Ruoff, Core Markets Lead for FAIRTIQ, the Swiss ticketing technology company that commissioned the independently written report, said: “Our Mobile Pay-As-You-Go technology has supported approaching 450m multi-modal journeys across Europe, and we are active in twelve countries including national ticketing systems in Denmark, Austria and Switzerland. We have partnered with more than 100 transport authorities and operators, and we’re ready to help more transport authorities deliver the simple and seamless multi-modal ticketing schemes their passengers deserve.”

To help implement modern ticketing, the report sets out more than a dozen deliverable recommendations for national and regional governments, national railway operators, other transport operators, and regional transport authorities. Together these would give passengers a better service at lower cost to the transport sector and state, without need for legislation or significant national investment programmes.

The full report, Stop Talking about London-Style: Why Digital PAYG is now the Future of Ticketing, can be downloaded here.

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