German eTicketing ready for implementation

Demands on interoperable standards for electronic fare management are at their highest in Germany,with its dense,multi-centred transport network.

The transport companies and authorities organised in the Association of German Transport Undertakings (VDV) carry some 27 million passengers every day. The majority of customers travel in integrated public transport systems under the motto: one ticket, one timetable, one fare. Most passengers use season tickets such as monthly passes, semester tickets, annual season tickets or job tickets. In addition, since the late 1960s, platform entry barriers have been removed for cost reasons; companies use an open system. These facts demonstrate that the public transport system in Germany offers an attractive service level, and that changes in the area of fares and sales must be very carefully planned due to their intense effects.

The high number of integrated public transport systems and the size of the market mean a ‘big-bang solution’ for a national system is unsuitable; however, the high mobility between the agglomeration centres may permit individualised approaches. The VDV, therefore, decided some time ago to focus its strategy on a migrative introduction of different variants adjusted to local conditions, which must also be able to co-exist in the long term. Nevertheless, or rather precisely for this very reason, the consistency of these individual steps and their precisely coordinated interplay, even across regional borders, is, however, a fundamental element of the strategy.

In order to reach this objective, the VDV initiated a research project in 2002 for an interoperable data and interface standard, which was co-financed by the German Ministry of Education and Research. In the summer of this year, the VDV Core Application was completed and successfully demonstrated.

Standardisation of variants of Electronic Fare Management

Electronic fare management consists of a multi-level approach:

1. non-cash payment
2. electronic tickets
3. automatic fare calculation

Levels 1 and 2 in themselves, basically retaining the previous conventional fares system, enable enduring improvements in fares and sales.

Non-cash payment, in particular using electronic wallets such as the German GeldKarte, is now a standard application. These chip-based eWallets constitute a – sadly not sufficiently recognised – solution for the previously cash-intensive lowprice sales sector. The VDV core application now provides for an interoperable electronic multiple journey ticket in the form of a value unit memory.Account-linked payment options agreed between the ticket-holder and the transport company are also planned for use on an interoperable basis.

The electronic ticket constitutes a shift from paper form to tickets that are directly electronically stored on a customer medium. However, the customer will continue to select the ticket before travelling. This is the migration route that countless authorities and transport companies in Germany are now planning – starting with season tickets.

Level 3, however, enables the complete replacement of conventional fare systems with electronic fare calculation. This opens up new scope for fare structures and previously impractical differentiation and management options to the full extent.

Automatic fare calculation uses technological development to relieve customers from the burden of fare considerations during travel. Through registration on entering and leaving the vehicle or through registering presence in the vehicle, the correct price for every service used can be determined without any further action on the part of the passenger. Furthermore, such systems improve companies’ market understanding to a decisive degree, which enables them to optimise their services in the long term.

The VDV Core Application

To avoid restricting diversity in the development process but still create a simpler and useful access option to buses and trains for customers – particularly rare or occasional public transport users – the VDV defined the objective of using the project ‘VDV Core Application’ to standardise the customer interfaces on the individual levels of EFM and to design them in a mutually interoperable form.

The development focuses on the needs of the public transport sector and its customers. These requirements include, for example, fast and secure data transfer, which does not slow down passengers’ entry to vehicles.A further demand is a reliable system that enables several partners to participate in a joint solution – offering customers simple travel between different transport companies.

The VDV Core Application integrates all levels of electronic fare management. It is the only implementation of the above VDV EFM levels conforming to current standards. The application does not affect individual control over fare structures, leaving sales decisions in the hands of individual companies and authorities, as it is independent of fare systems, and various levels can also co-exist in the long term. The technology may be introduced in several stages.

On the customer side – and particularly for target customer groups – a further harmonisation and interoperability of the fares system is necessary. It is also essential to prevent this development from taking place at different speeds and in different directions at an early point. It is also important to prevent a lack of harmonisation, which could lead to the new technology simply replacing old access inhibitions with new, more modern equivalents rather than breaking down access inhibitions. The VDV’s ‘Public Transport Core Application’ seizes the historical opportunity to standardise customer interfaces in EFM.

For passengers, interoperability in public transport fare management systems means both a guarantee of uninterrupted travel and also selective individual journeys using the same application in the networks of all contractually integrated operators. In practice, this calls for an individual application to which more than one operator has access. The data must be treated in a coordinated manner, i.e. the data used in the application must be interpreted and used in the same way in all systems. The encoding process used for secure access must also be standardised.

A central objective of the VDV Core Application project was to ensure that customers could use all electronic fare management systems with a single medium. This was achieved on the data element level by means of the clear specification of the interfaces between the ‘user medium’ and the terminals, including their background systems. The data standard for EFM was developed within the VDV Core Application project, creating the organisational pre-requisites for interoperable fare management in Germany. The fine specification has been completed, and was tested in lab experiments for security, performance and interoperability up to the middle of this year.All transport companies have now been provided with tenderable documents for the introduction of EFM solutions.

Chip cards as a basic solution

The VDV Core Application can be stored on various media, such as the GeldKarte eWallet, transport companies’ own cards, mobile telephone SIM cards or other intelligent appliances, particularly for presence detection. The requirements are a high-performance microprocessor chip and the standardised contact-type (ISO 7816) or contactless (ISO IEC 14443) interfaces. These ‘dual-interface’ smartcards – equipped with the core application – are technically suitable for use in all electronic fare management systems up to check-in/check-out. During the initial implementation stages, however, the contactless chip card is likely to be the basic medium, as companies commonly only issue their own cards for season ticket holders.

From the present point of view, presence detection or Be-in/Be-out (BIBO), as developed in Switzerland in the ‘Easy- Ride’ project and piloted in Dresden as part of the ‘intermobil’ project, is a target status that transfers the comfort of season ticket-holders to all passengers. The technical necessities for this passive presence detection are integrated into the VDV Core Application. To bridge the transmission path between the customer medium and the vehicle, ‘active media’, i.e. media with their own power source, are necessary.

Integration of mobile telephones

Mobile telephones can be technically integrated into all three levels. The best prospect for the public transport sector would be if the foreseeable development of payment services, integrating an interface in accordance with ISO/IEC 14443 or with NFC compatibility into mobile phones, were to take off. This would then enable communication at close range for all three levels, however only with a contactless interface.Where this is not available, a ticket can also be uploaded and paid via the telephone network. The VDV Core Application was also developed for this purpose; another target was to describe a standard interface for ticket sales via Internet (sales applet) and to integrate the Be-in/Be-out interface.

Standardisation of the customer interface

The realisation stage of the core application aims to standardise all customer-related processes as far as possible. The key requirement is interoperability between the individual levels, as this ensures from the customer point of view,

• freedom of mobility and ease of journeys between systems,
• certainty that ‘learned public transport use’ is correct,
• reduction of access inhibitions regarding public transport use for non-locals (business travellers, tourists).

Role model of the VDV core application

The logical role model of the VDV Core Application is closely linked with the international standards of interoperable system architecture for electronic fare management. The functional roles described in the core application are depicted in Figure 1.

Customers deal with their customer contract partner, who sells them fare products in it’s own name and manages their contractual relationships. Customers use these products with the service provider, the transport company. This company provides the use data to a background system, which is operated by the ‘product manager’. This product manager formulates the rules for the individual fare products, and consolidates and invoices the use data. The product manager receives the fares income from the customer contract partner and passes it on to the service providers according to the income allocation regulations.

Putting these logical roles into practice for the transport companies and authorities depends, now and in the future, on the statutory and contractual conditions in the individual regions. For example, a transport company can, in principle, perform all of the roles itself (apart from the user, of course).A further example is that the current sales channels via independent agencies do not cover all the functions of the customer contract partner, as these currently and in EFM, sell fare products in the name of the transport company the products belong to. However, many integrated transport organisations already perform the functions of a product manager, although frequently legally on behalf of the transport company.

Beyond these local and regional roles, service functions are required for customer information and for security and certification. This logical role model must be underpinned by precise contracts and harmonised with the interests of the parties applying it.

Mutual objectives

As well as the VDV Core Application as a data standard and technical solution, further institutions and agreements are necessary for interoperability. The VDV Board of Directors has decided and implemented the foundation of a limited company,VDV-Kernapplikations GmbH & Co. KG. This company is responsible for the organisational implementation of the VDV Core Application. This consists of:

• the role of sole application issuer for the VDV Core Application, including system accreditation and registration
• responsibility for specification administration and further development, including alteration management and evaluation of relevant new developments,
• the organisation and control of joint security management, including process definition and organisation of key management,
• responsibility for certification of standard-compatible user media and further EFM components,
• the creation of a standardised organisation and contractual body, which enables the individual regions to join the VDV Core Application system on a simple basis,
• the definition of the standardised customer interface as an addition to the technical interface specification,
• the organisation of necessary functions for interoperability, such as customer service, CRL service, payment services functions and clearing functions, and other functions required by the participating transport companies and authorities,
• the provision of advice and support for transport companies for the introduction of EFM systems conforming to the core application and for the acquisition of user media,
• marketing of the VDV Core Application to other national and international systems, such as the credit industry, national customer relations programs or foreign EFM systems.

The objective of progressing jointly in this area, however, also extends to the political and ministry level. The VDV Core Application creates a key element for a quality and innovation offensive in the public transport sector. It is important to accompany the high investments in networks and vehicles with a modernisation in the area of ticketing and information, in order to maintain the public transport sector’s image as an environmentally friendly form of transport, particularly compatible with urban regions.

The necessary conditions to be set on the federal and regional level are therefore:

• subsidies towards the creation of an interoperable infrastructure (central background system),
• initial funding towards migration in individual projects (core application security for terminals, customer media),
• compatibility of the implementation projects with the VDV Core Application/interoperability as general condition for subsidies.

Introduction strategy

In coordination with the parties in the regions in which EFM systems are introduced, migration paths that ensure a joint implementation of the VDV Core Application will be developed. Many transport companies intend to use an EFM system on the basis of the VDV Core Application in an initial step, and issue their season ticket-holders with tickets in chip form.

The transport companies in the Schwäbisch Hall integrated transport system (KVSH) – the winner of the innovation prize of the Land Baden-Wurttemberg – intend to go one step further, by introducing a Check-in-/Check-out system for their frequent travellers without season tickets.

The first interoperability level on the customer side will be achieved when the season tickets currently paid in cash or by direct debit are switched to the interoperable core application payment methods POB (postpaid account booking) or PEB (prepaid account booking). The relevant contracts are concluded and customers can then check in and out of KVSH buses and trains in Schwäbisch Hall with a season ticket from the Rhine-Ruhr or Berlin transport networks, with their fares booked out of their own accounts with Rheinbahn or BVG.

The target must be to distribute tickets with integrated VDV Core Application to customers as fast as possible in as many regions as possible.At the company end, the acceptance appliances should then be upgraded to the selected level with a ‘VDV Core Application security module’. Every additional area and every additionally issued medium has an overproportionate effect. Another important target is to integrate the VDV Core Application on dual-interface cards of thirdparty issuers (e.g. bank cards).

The transport companies and authorities are now called upon to test the economic viability of a possible introduction of e-ticket systems, initially on a local level. The VDV Board of Directors has also given them the task of assessing the economic benefits of interoperability and comparing these with the costs. It is also essential in this context that close cooperation of several regions will promote cost reductions in creating and coordinating future migration steps on the basis of the standard, proving the economic benefit of the research project.