One system of electronic payment for every bus, train and metro in the Netherlands. No need for change and no more waiting in line to buy a ticket. A chip card is everything a traveller will need. Following the current pilot project in Rotterdam, in 2009 the chip card is scheduled to be the only way to use any form of public transport.
The five major public transport companies in the Netherlands, that have a collective market share of over 80%, have established Trans Link Systems (TLS) to introduce the new ticketing system. TLS has commissioned East-West e-ticketing BV to develop this system. East-West e-ticketing BV is a consortium of Thales and Vialis. In this consortium Thales is the system integrator and responsible for the technology of both the hardware and the software. Vialis will handle the maintenance of the subsystems.
In view of ever-increasing costs of transport by car and the still unsolved problem of traffic congestion, the role of public transport is expected to become more and more important to the country's economy. Why has Thales been selected for the modernization of such an important project? First of all, Thales has a strong reputation in Europe and Asia for large-scale, custom-made turn-key projects. In Hong Kong some of Thales' subcontractors have realized the successful Octopus chip card system, enabling East-West to use proven technology.
TLS does not operate by itself in this project. Various public authorities and institutes are involved, such as the Government, the provinces, several big cities and some public transport interest groups. The Government insisted on the use of an open architecture, in order to avoid a monopoly position. The East-West system meets with all generally accepted technical protocols so that every public transport system will be able to choose subsystems and parts that best match their specific needs.
The national system must be multi-modal, i.e. enable the use of trains, buses, trams and metros, and consist of several levels. On the bottom level, the traveller will use the chip card to travel from A to B. At higher levels, there are selling points, card readers, check points etc. Each separate public transport company has its own central system for the recording all registration and transaction data. At the highest level the central processing system will receive all data generated by the transport companies. On the basis of these data the central system will make payments between the companies, it will manage the automatic recharging of chip cards and it will see to the registration and communication concerning invalid cards. It will also provide facilities to personalize chip cards without enabling personal analyses. Billions of transactions are expected to be handled correctly and securely.