Many public transport operators are currently considering introducing smartcard systems to improve the efficiency of fare collection and other services. Although there is much discussion of such systems, practical experience is generally very limited and as a result many uncertainties still remain. One of the few countries that does have substantial practical experience of the use of smartcards in public transport applications is Finland, where trials and full scale implementations have been underway since 1994. The objective of this paper is to report the results of a recent study that evaluated the large scale implementation and operation of smartcard systems in five Finnish cities. The study focused on the institutional, operational, behavioural and economic impacts of the systems and formed part of the ADEPT II project and was supported by the European Commission. The paper comprises a number of sections. The first section briefly reviews and compares the historical background of the two principal Finnish smartcard initiatives; the Mathahuolto system (operating the cities of Tampere and Kupio) which is a nation wide smartcard-based public transport payment system and the City Card scheme (operating in the cities of Vassa, Senecajoki and Rovaniemi) in which smartcards are used to provide access control and payment function for a range of local services as well as public transport. In the second section we identify the objectives of the relevant decision makers in each city and briefly compare the different institutional and technical approaches that were adopted. In the third section we summarise the results of a series of before and after studies that were carried out in each city to establish the true impacts of the systems on the operational performance of services and note passengers' attitudes and behaviour. In the final section we attempt to draw out some general lessons concerning the factors that affect the success of smartcard applications.
Abstract