This paper begins by describing traditional methods of fare collection in public transport, and considers their advantages and disadvantages. The opportunities for automating this process are then outlined. Based on a survey of European operators the attitudes of those operators towards application of RTI (Road Transport Informatics) in fare collection are summarised. It is concluded that different operators have very different requirements, but there emerged a strong interest in the possibilities for data acquisition offered by automatic fare collection systems. A framework is constructed within which the various alternative options may be evaluated, and recommendations made. This framework enables the identification of data flow within the domain of fare collection, and clarifies how such data are of importance to other CASSIOPE domains, in particular strategic planning, management information and passenger information. The paper concludes that it is neither possible nor desirable to attempt to standardise the provision of fare collection hardware. However it should be possible to develop a coherent approach to the treatment of data, by way of the specification of a central data base with a common set of basic data defined in a data model. It is hoped to demonstrate this process in a major European city as a first step to confirm the feasibility of developing an integrated approach to application of RTI in public transport fare collection.
Abstract