Event Ticketing Systems

It is the technology behind contactless transactions. Mobile wallets, cards, smartwatches, phones as terminals, public transport gates. And the best part: it does not even touch the money. NFC stands for Near-Field Communication. It is a wireless technology that lets two devices exchange payment information when they are close. •  NFC is a small chip built into devices like phones, cards, and smartwatches •  It works only at very short distance, which is why tap feels instant and secure •  It can connect different devices •  NFC doesn’t process the payment itself - it just passes the information to the system that actually moves the money (e.g. bank, card network, payment app) However, NFC payment models are not one thing - they are built from three dimensions: who starts the payment, how the data is created, and whether the transaction is online or offline. 𝟭) 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: •  Payer-initiated The customer device initiates the interaction and provides the payment details Example: tapping a phone to another phone or device to send money •  Payee-initiated The merchant initiates the transaction with a predefined amount Example: a restaurant terminal presenting the bill for the customer to tap and pay 𝟮) 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱: • Static The same payment information is reused every time and only transaction-specific elements change Example: A taxi driver’s payment terminal always contains the same account details, and only the fare changes for each ride •  Dynamic The payment data is generated per transaction and already includes the amount and context Example: a ticket machine generating a specific fare for a single purchase 𝟯) 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆: •  Online The payment is authorized immediately Example: paying in a supermarket - the transaction is approved instantly •  Offline The interaction happens instantly, but the actual processing happens later Example: Tapping a card or phone at a metro gate - access is instant but the fare is charged later 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: •  NFC is not a payment method - it is an interface for initiating payments •  It standardises the interaction (the tap) but not the underlying payment. The real competition sits behind it (banks, card networks, instant payment rails, wallets) •  Because the tap looks the same everywhere, different payment types (card, wallet, A2A) can look identical - differentiation shifts to what happens after (authorization, speed, cost, control) •  As A2A replicates the card experience at POS, the tap becomes independent of the underlying rail reinforcing the shift to processing and economics •  As acceptance moves to software (phones as terminals) and offline expands reach, distribution is shifting to where NFC is embedded (e.g. smartphones, POS devices) Opinions: my own, Graphic source: World Bank Group 𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫: https://lnkd.in/dkqhnxdg

If you live in Bengaluru, you’ve seen the struggle: passengers scanning a faded QR code on a bus wall, manually typing in ₹15, and showing a screenshot to a busy conductor. The problem? This system relied on "Human Trust," which is easily broken. Just recently, three conductors were caught swapping official QR codes with their private ones, diverting public money into personal accounts. The Solution? Dynamic QR Codes. BMTC is now rolling out 11,000+ smart machines that auto-generate a unique QR code for every single ticket. In the old system, a passenger could show a "fake screenshot." In the new system, the ticket only prints once the payment is verified by the backend. No payment = No ticket. Simple. By using Dynamic QR codes, BMTC ensures that every rupee is tracked in real-time. We are moving from a "Manual Verification" model to a "System-Validated" model. This isn't just about buses. The new machines will support the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC), meaning you can use the same card for the Metro and the Bus. This is Vertical Integration at a city-wide scale. Imagine you have a lemonade stand. If people just tell you "I paid your brother," you might lose money. But if you have a magic box that only gives a cup of lemonade after it sees the money go into your piggy bank, you never get cheated! We are witnessing a transition from Static Authentication to Ephemeral, Transaction-Linked Validation. By moving the point of collection from a "Wall Sticker" to an "Active ETM," BMTC is reducing the "Attack Surface" for internal fraud and external spoofing. I see this as more than just a "tech upgrade." It’s about building a Systems-Driven culture where the technology itself acts as the supervisor. Kudos to BMTC and Chalo for this ₹30 crore leap toward a smarter Bengaluru! What do you think? Is this the end of "Chillar" (change) issues in our buses? #BMTC #Bengaluru #DigitalIndia #ServiceNow #SystemsThinking #UPI #NCMC #SmartCity #TheKonkaniExplorer #SimpleThinking

🚇 300ms vs. 30s: When Every Second Counts, NFC Wins Over UPI Every Time 🚀 I get asked this question all the time when talking about transit payments in India. Fair question. UPI has been transformative — 15+ billion transactions a month, powering everything from chai stalls to e-commerce. It's India's biggest fintech success story. ➡️ But here's something that surprised me: At MTC Chennai, 98% of fare collection is still cash. Not because commuters don't have UPI. Not because they don't know how to use it. These are urban office-goers, rising middle class, smartphone users who order food, pay bills, and shop online — all via UPI. So why cash for their daily commute? Because context matters. - On a crowded bus during rush hour: - Pulling out your phone is a hassle - Opening an app, scanning a QR, waiting for confirmation takes 20-30 seconds - Network delays cause failed transactions - It's stressful when you're already stressed from the commute And it's not just passengers. Conductors told us: - "Generating QRs for 50+ people, waiting for each person to scan and pay, dealing with failures — it's too much. Better I take cash and reconcile later." But when we asked them about NCMC contactless cards? - "This solves everything. I enter the route, they tap the card, payment done. Even faster than cash." 🚨 That's the insight: UPI optimized for flexibility. Transit needs speed and reliability. London doesn't use QR codes for the Tube. Hong Kong's Octopus Card isn't app-based. Singapore's EZ-Link isn't UPI. Why? Because when you're moving millions of people daily, every second at the gate matters. Contactless cards process in under 300 milliseconds. No apps. No screens. No thinking. India has 200+ million daily public transit users. The opportunity isn't to add another payment option — it's to build the right payment experience for the right context. That's why we're building Orbit Wallet — a simple powerful Rupay powered Orbit NCMC Card to make urban mobility truly seamless. Sometimes the best solution isn't the most flexible one. It's the one that fits the moment. few pics from my travel in Mumbai and Chennai #UrbanMobility #Fintech #NCMC #PublicTransport #ProductThinking #OrbitWallet #UPI #Payments #DigitalIndia #Startups #VCs #mumbaimetro3

Indian Railways has embarked on a modernization drive to bring *metro-style access systems to suburban train travel*, starting with a pilot at 12 major stations across Mumbai and Gujarat. This marks a major shift toward structured, high-tech passenger management within India’s busy railway system. Key Pilot Locations The pilot project covers 12 stations: 1. Mumbai: Bandra Terminus, Borivali, and Andheri 2. Gujarat: Nine high-footfall stations under the Western Railways division. 1. Features of the New System Automated entry and exit gates: Only ticketed passengers allowed into the platform area, minimizing fare evasion. 2. QR-code and digital ticketing: Passengers can scan e-tickets or printouts at the gates for seamless access. 3. Dedicated security screening zones: Entry points will include integrated scanning and security checks, similar to metro operations. 4. Elevated concourse decks: Multi-functional elevated decks to host ticket counters, waiting areas, and security booths, helping decongest platform levels. 5. Organized commuter flow: Controlled gates will regulate entry and exit, reducing crowding during peak hours. 6. Objectives and Expected Benefits Enhanced commuter safety: Controlled access ensures better monitoring and lower risk of unauthorized entry. 7. Reduced fare evasion: Automated ticket validation drastically limits loss from ticketless travel. 8. Improved crowd management: Streamlined movement helps prevent overcrowding, especially during rush hours. 9. Station modernization: Introduces metro-like discipline to a 150-year-old suburban system that moves millions daily. 10. Accessibility and comfort: Elevated decks ease foot traffic, improving travel for women, seniors, and differently abled commuters. Broader Impact Officials aim to use this pilot as a blueprint for wider implementation across India’s dense suburban and intercity networks. The project aligns with the railway’s long-term vision of digitally integrated, safety-first public transport. Success could lead to future innovations like common mobility cards, unified ticketing, and AI-based footfall analytics. According to railway officials, the move is as transformative as the introduction of air-conditioned local trains—ushering in a new commuter culture focused on convenience, safety, and efficiency

SEOUL, Sept. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul Metropolitan Government on Wednesday introduced a tagless fare payment system at 12 subway stations on the Ui-Sinseol Light Rail Transit (excluding Bomun Station) in collaboration with transportation card issuer Tmoney Co. This marks the world’s first introduction of a tagless system in a subway network. The term ‘tagless’ refers to a system that enables passengers to pass through subway ticket gates without the need to tag transportation cards. An antenna device positioned above the ticket gate receives passenger information via Bluetooth and automatically processes payments. To pass through the tagless gate, passengers must first install the Mobile T-Money application and then activate the tagless system and Bluetooth.

🚇💳 The Silent Revolution: Redefining Automated Fare Collection (AFC) The landscape of urban mobility is no longer just about moving people from point A to B, but rather about the seamless integration of data, identity and finance. #AFC is transitioning from back office necessity to the literal 'Operating System' of smart cities. For transport authorities and technology providers the shift is clear: we are moving away from proprietary, 'walled garden' systems toward open, #Cloud-native ecosystems. Here are the three technical pillars redefining the industry this year. 1. 💳 Account-Based Ticketing (ABT) The legacy model of storing value on a physical card (Card-Based) is rapidly being phased out in favour of Account-Based Ticketing (#ABT). In this architecture, the 'intelligence' resides in the back office. ● Tokenization: whether a rider taps a phone, a wearable or a physical #EMV card, the system treats it as a secure token linked to a central account. ● Fare Capping & Equity: ABT allows for sophisticated, real-time best-fare calculations. Dynamic fare capping has become a baseline requirement, ensuring that patrons who cannot afford monthly passes upfront still benefit from the lowest possible rates through daily or weekly caps. 2. 🛜 The Rise of 'Be-In/Be-Out' (BIBO) We are witnessing the decline of the 'tap' itself. While Check-In/Check-Out (#CICO) with #NFC remains the global standard, 2026 marks the commercial scaling of Be-In/Be-Out (#BIBO) systems. Using Bluetooth Low Energy (#BLE) and Ultra-Wideband (#UWB), sensors in the station or on the vehicle detect a patron's smartphone automatically; this enables: 🖐🏾 Hands-Free Transit: no more fumbling for wallets, the fare is calculated and deducted based on proximity and duration of stay. 📊 Precision Analytics: high-fidelity data on passenger flow and station crowding allows operators to adjust frequency in real-time. 3. 🫆 Biometrics and the Invisible Payment Biometric AFC, specifically facial and palm recognition, has moved beyond pilot phases in major Asian and Middle Eastern hubs. The technical challenge in 2026 isn't recognition speed (which is now sub-300ms) but Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs). Modern systems use Edge #AI to convert biometric data into irreversible mathematical hashes locally, ensuring that raw images are never stored or transmitted. This 'Face-as-a-Fare' model is the ultimate end-game for frictionless travel, turning human identity into the ultimate transit credential. The bottom line: in 2026, the most successful AFC systems are those built on Open APIs. As Mobility-as-a-Service (#MaaS) matures, your transport fare must talk to bike-share apps, ride-hailing platforms and even EV charging stations. The goal is no longer just to collect fares, it's about creating a unified, invisible layer of trust that powers modern cities. #PublicTransport #Planning #SmartCities #Technology #FareCollection #Future #DigitalTransformation

Public transport in the Maldives didn’t always work for everyone. Most people had to pay for buses and ferries in cash. Tourists needed local currency just to move from one place to another. And transport operators didn’t have much visibility on how many people were using their services or when. To change this, the Maldives launched Raajje Transport Link (RTL), a national transport network connecting buses and ferries across the country. As part of this project, they partnered with QMastercard and the Bank of Maldives to introduce a new contactless payment system called the “open-loop payments” This system allows people to pay directly on buses and ferries using any contactless bank card, not just local ones. And If someone does not have a bank card, they can use a prepaid card or directly buy tickets online through the RTL mobile app. And the result was great… → Digital transactions increased by 72% across the transport network. → Commuters now board faster without waiting in line for tickets, reducing congestion at busy terminals. → Tourists no longer need to deal with currency exchange or search for cash machines. → Operators finally have real-time data about passenger flows, peak travel times, and route performance. And this helps them adjust schedules and improve the overall service experience. Beyond the numbers, this project showed that when payment systems remove small daily barriers, adoption comes naturally. People don’t need to be convinced to use digital payments, they just need systems that fit how they live and move. And for me, this case study is a good reminder that financial inclusion doesn’t always start with banking products or apps. Sometimes it starts with something as basic as making it easier to pay for a bus ride. Keep following Ash Kalra for payment and banking case studies every Sunday. #payments #fintech #transport #inclusion #smartcities

5 years ago.     Cash. Cards. Closed loop.    Yes, not long ago, paying for transit felt harder than the journey itself.    Cash slowed everything down. Ticket vending machines created friction. Every region had its own system. Its own rule. Its own barriers.    We built fare collection systems around agencies. Not around people.    Today.    A tap. A gate opens. A train arrives.     A small moment that says a lot about how mobility is changing. The same tap you use for coffee... started working at the fare gate.    Here’s what that shift revealed:     🔹At first, contactless payments were a pilot. An experiment. An innovation – promising but still uncertain.     🔹Today, across cities and continents, millions of riders tap a bank card or mobile wallet every single day to move through transport networks.     10M+ contactless journeys (taps) in Washington D.C. 50M+ taps in Boston Metro 200M+ trips in Brisbane Area 3,800M+ taps in New York City Area.   And many more across cities worldwide.    No card to buy. No ticket machines.  No fares to calculate. Just Tap. Go. Ride.    Same credential. Different systems. Different cities. One experience.    ✨ The best fare collection system simplifies payment decisions. When innovation truly works, it fades into the background. That is the moment when innovation becomes infrastructure.     ✨Contactless and open payments are no longer experiments layered onto legacy ticketing systems. They are becoming foundational to modern mobility.  They didn’t just improve fare collection.     They redefined it.   From ticketing ➡️ access.   From systems ➡️ ecosystems.   From contactless ➡️ connected.     So, what’s next?    Read my breakdown of what that shift means, how transit is moving from fragmented systems to integrated connected mobility infrastructure, how we rethink access and ticketing interoperability, and what it means for agencies next. 👇  https://lnkd.in/g4qm3ETx    Cubic Transportation Systems Metropolitan Transportation Authority Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) MBTA Translink_QLD #PublicTransit #PublicTransport #ContactlessPayments #OpenPayments 

I'm looking forward to visiting Edinburgh in the coming weeks, as the city is taking a pragmatic leap toward fare simplification, and I want to test it! A new tap-on, tap-off contactless payment system is being introduced on trams and integrated with Lothian Buses. No more paper tickets. No separate travel cards. Just a bank card or mobile wallet, and you're in. This is more than a tech upgrade. It’s a deliberate move toward equitable, user-centric mobility. Daily and weekly caps will prevent overpayment. Tourists and occasional riders will finally get fare parity without navigating local ticketing quirks. The contrast with cities still clinging to cash-only options or proprietary fare media couldn’t be starker. The takeaway? Open-loop isn’t just a trend, it’s becoming the baseline for modern transit systems. There’s an opportunity here for other urban networks: cut friction, build trust, and focus on experience over enforcement. #UrbanMobility #PublicTransport #ContactlessPayments #MaaS #MobilityInnovation #TransitStrategy