BusConnects Dublin - Bus Network Changes Discussion

The contract is also to maintain the entire system, including all validators, gates and ticket machines for 20 years. So it works out at about 13.5 million per year.

To put some context to this, London is also looking to upgrade to the same type of next gen ticketing system and the contract is looking to be £1.5 Billion over 12 years.

There is one element to the next gen ticketing that I think they have maybe gotten wrong and I suspect is badly delaying the rollout.

That is the decision that the new validators and infrastructure should work with the old Leap cards and free travel cards and all that goes with that. I suspect this means that rather then just using an off the shelf system, they have had to code and test all the old 20 years worth of old Leap card technology and ticketing on the new systems and validators.

I suspect we could have had at least contactless tap to pay one to two years earlier if they didn't do this!

The alternative approach would have been to keep the old Leap card system in parallel, with it's own separate validators, etc. until the new system phased it out and completely replaced it. That is what was done when Leap cards was first introduced, we had two validators side by side until the old tickets were completely phased out. Other cities take this approach too with EMV contactless.

This is why we will only start getting new validators next year and they will initially only work with Leap cards and we won't get the tap to pay until 2028.

Had they taken the alternative approach we could have gotten contactless tap to pay straight away and then over time they could added new functionality to it until it completely replaced the old leap cards. I would have preferred that approach.

The way it works on buses is completely different from shops and a lot more complicated.

The ones in shops need an internet connection and take a few seconds to process the transaction, talking to a payment processor etc. over an internet connection. This isn’t possible on buses as it would be too slow (goal is 500 milliseconds) and buses don’t always have reliable internet connections everywhere.

Thus a special mode was created specifically for public transport in the cEMV standard called model 2 payments (model 1 being the simple shop example).

The way it works on buses, etc. is that when you use your debit card, it doesn’t charge you at that point like it would in a shop. Instead it simply records your card details in the validator. At a later point the card info is transferred to the backend systems and then overnight they figure out what you owe, taking into account 90 minute tickets and daily and weekly capping and only then do they charge your bank account.

Not just anyone can use this special mode, it requires lots of security and special agreements with various financial institutions, to make sure fraud doesn’t happen.

Now this isn’t exactly new, it has been implemented in other cities too, but it is more complicated then how it works in shops.

Having said all that, I suspect adding old leap card support to it has slowed down the rollout of what would otherwise be a somewhat more straightforward project.

There is no forced apps, they usually have other alternative ways to pay too. There are usually ticket validator machines on the bus/train that you can buy tickets from or validate some Leap type card on. Just like how in Cork you can pay using the TFI Go app or Leap card or cash.

In some cities you don't even need to do anything with the app, if you allow it GPS access it can automatically tag you in and out when you get on and off.

This sort of thing could work very well for Luas and Metrolink and even DART if they got rid of the silly gates. Our issue is the buses, you would need to hire lots of ticket inspectors like the Luas has. I'd love to see us move to this model, but with us struggling to hire bus drivers, it might not be the best time to do it for buses, but hopefully something for the future.

One cool future technology is Ultrawide Band (UWB), it is built into iPhones and high end Android phones. It allows for very precise location (it is how Apple airtags work).

You don't even need to take your phone out of your pocket, just step through the door of the bus and you would be tagged on, which the driver could see and then when you exit the back door, automatically tag you off.

Also the gates at DART stations could swish open without you even breaking stride or taking your phone out of your pocket.

It could give you an experience similar to Germany, but still having the driver do the ticket checking.

I expect UWB to be the next next gen of ticketing.