Contactless smartcards for public transportation

 

Japanese railway corporation JR East is the world’s largest people mover. The company gets 16 million people from A to B on a daily basis. As a way to increase station capacity and enhance customer convenience they introduced Suica, a prepaid IC card taking away the necessary chore of buying tickets, in 2001. This card uses RFID technology. When you enter the station and pass through the gates, your card will remember. When you arrive at your destination, your fare will be calculated and withdrawn automatically. Besides, you can use your Suica pay in some 4000 shops. And there are even some companies, like Hitachi, that use Suica as an entrance card for their offices.

Five years later, after the system proved to catch on like a house on fire, JR East introduced the Mobile Suica. Developed in conjunction with Japan’s number one telecom firm, NTT DoCoMo, the chip that provides the Suica service is now embedded in your mobile. So no need for a card anymore: your ticket is paid for by your phone. With more than 20 million cards sold at present, Suica has become a big business to JR East which plans to expand the system’s functionality.

In March 2007, a collective of public transport companies (bus, subway and train) in the Tokyo Metropolitan area issued their version of Suica, called Pasmo. This card offers access to the transport services of about sixty companies in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures. It can also be used on some 6000 taxis in the Tokyo area, which is around 10% of the taxis driving around town.

Both systems are interoperable, meaning that one can travel on the JR trains with Pasmo, buy stuff at shops and vending machines with the Suica logo with it. And the other way around: with a Suica, one can also use the services showing the Pasmo logo.

So obviously, the big gain from a consumer perspective is convenience through the integration of different functions. We are very curious to find out what this looks like from the provider’s point of view. Who controls the databases where all the data on card use, passenger preferences and travel patterns are stored? Is access to these databases sold to third parties? What are the data being used for? Do any consumers or organizations perceive the storage of these data as an infringement of their privacy?

Let’s find out!

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