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HISTORICAL ARCHIVE · Originally published May 18, 2020
Archive

Public Transport Ticketing: UK & Germany (Part 2)

Part two of a 2020 survey of public transport ticketing — how fare collection worked in the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Brazil and Mexico.

Transit

This is an earlier piece from the AmbiSecure engineering archive. Where the field has moved on, the link above points to current coverage of the same topic.

Building on Part 1, this article continues the 2020 country-by-country survey, looking at how the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Brazil and Mexico ran fare collection at the time.

United Kingdom

The Oyster card enables convenient payments across London transport services. "Transport for London (TfL) was the first public transport provider in the world to accept payment by contactless bank cards," with approximately one in ten UK contactless transactions occurring on the TfL network.

Germany

Berlin offers online tickets and smartphone apps. The Berlin WelcomeCard serves tourists with access to "S-Bahn, U-Bahn, buses, trams, and ferries."

Russia

Moscow features a unified chip card system with remote top-up capabilities and mobile ticketing options including PayPass, Apple Pay, and Android Pay.

Brazil

RioCard operates as a rechargeable smart card. "Rio de Janeiro was the first city in Brazil to launch a program enabling mobile NFC-based ticketing for public transport."

Mexico

Multiple fare collection methods exist, including the Metrobus contactless smartcard and the Tarjeta DF multimodal transit card.

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Public Transport Ticketing System (Part-1)

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Frequently asked questions

Which countries does part 2 cover?

The United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Brazil and Mexico, as fare collection stood in 2020.

What made Transport for London significant?

TfL was the first public transport provider in the world to accept payment by contactless bank cards, and around one in ten UK contactless transactions occur on its network.

Has account-based ticketing replaced offline validation?

No. Account-based ticketing has matured, but the offline-validator floor — SAM-backed DESFire — is still where most transaction volume sits.

What did the Berlin WelcomeCard offer?

A tourist-oriented ticket covering S-Bahn, U-Bahn, buses, trams and ferries on a single product, alongside Germany's move to online tickets and smartphone apps.

Why does the offline validator floor still matter if account-based ticketing has matured?

Because the validator still has to decide in a few hundred milliseconds whether the gate opens, with no guarantee of connectivity. Account-based systems change where the balance lives, not the need for a local trust decision.

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