Skip to main content

Smart Card Alliance white paper explores possibilities for NFC in transit industry

With near field communication (NFC)-enabled handsets poised to exceed 100 million in 2012, the Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council has announced a new white paper examining how the transit industry can best make use of this popular new technology.
March 14, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
With near field communication (NFC)-enabled handsets poised to exceed 100 million in 2012, the Smart Card Alliance Transportation Council has announced a new white paper examining how the transit industry can best make use of this popular new technology.

"One of the major challenges facing transit agencies today is how to capitalise on the ever-growing popularity of mobile phones with a solid mobile strategy," said Craig Roberts, Utah Transit Authority, and chair of the Transportation Council. "This white paper builds on the knowledge base developed in earlier white papers to foster a greater understanding of NFC technology, explain its role in the transit industry, and shed light on key issues facing the transit industry in developing a mobile strategy."

The white paper, "NFC and Transit," is available for free download by visiting www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/publications-near-field-communication-and-transit. It explores the use of NFC for payment, transit ticketing and non-payment transit information applications.

"In order to fully realise the benefits of NFC technology, transit agencies need to immerse themselves into the operational details of the NFC ecosystem and thoroughly understand the technology and business models," said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. "This white paper is another piece of the puzzle in terms of fully educating the industry on the ins and outs of NFC."

Participants involved in the development of this white paper included: 1968 Accenture; 13 ACS, 1750 American Express; Ashok Joshi; Collis; Connexem Consulting; 378 Cubic Transportation Systems; 1275 Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART); Giesecke & Devrient; HP Enterprise Services; Identive Group; Infineon Technologies; Inside Secure; JPMorgan Chase; LTK Engineering Services; 1756 MasterCard Worldwide; MTA New York City Transit; NJ Transit; 566 NXP Semiconductors; OTI America; Quadagno & Associates; Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA); 324 US Department of Transportation/Volpe Center; VeriFone; 1758 Visa; and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Vix enables UK first for Stagecoach bus passengers
    June 25, 2012
    A new NFC Phone application developed by Vix is enabling a UK first for Stagecoach bus passengers in Cambridge. The innovative trial, which could lead to a nationwide roll out across select bus and rail services next year, is enabling the small cross section of participating bus users to receive, store and validate their bus tickets using their mobile phone.
  • Join the USDOT Connected Cities Research Program webinar
    January 15, 2015
    The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) is to host a free webinar to inform stakeholders of its new Connected Cities Research Program. The webinar, ‘Creating Smart Paths for Connected Cities’, is scheduled for 26 February 2015, from 10:30 am to 12:00 pm EST. The webinar follows the release of the ITS JPO white paper, The Smart/Connected City and its Implications for Connected Transportation, which will provide a foundation for the discussion.
  • Transition to all electronic tolling leads to cost savings
    February 2, 2012
    How a temporary congestion-relief solution resulted in the North Texas Tollway Authority's transition to all-electronic toll collection and potential savings of up to $472 million by 2045. By Carla Kienast, ETC Corporation
  • New EU project to develop an 'internet of mobility'
    February 6, 2013
    Over the next three and a half years, the US$21.1 million Mobinet project aims to capitalise on the widespread growth in smartphones, mobile data services, and cloud-based computing to launch a new generation of travel apps for European citizens, and transport services for businesses and local authorities. Intelligent transport services (ITS) apply leading-edge mobile communications and information technology to make travel safer, smarter and cleaner, but the challenge is to deploy these Europe-wide and to