Finland has several operational smart card based multi-application city card systems. Three systems have been in use since 1996-97 and four new ones for about a year. The realization of the systems is result of the active role by Ministry of Transport and Communications of Finland (MTC) who decided in Autumn 1993 to launch a nationwide City Card Program. Public transport is the core application of the earlier systems. The new cities have separate parallel public transport card systems. Electronic identity and signatures for transactions with public administration (for use, for example, in parking and tolling situations) was launched as the key application of the new cities. The user volumes of the systems with public transport grew rapidly to about one third of the town population. The breakthrough of the new schemes has not yet been seen. This presentation gives an introduction of the City Card Programme life cycle during 1993 -2000 and highlights the results of the studies taken over. Finally the paper introduces case Oulu as an example of medium size city card system.
Abstract