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).

Related Content

  • Init installs e-fare system on over 530 bus routes in Orange County
    February 23, 2018
    Init has installed its e-fare validators on more than 530 fixed-route buses that belong to the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) as part of a system-wide project. The upgrade is expected to improve passenger experience by providing a more convenient payment option while allowing for potential future regional fare integration. Through the OC Bus Mobile app, riders can now scan a QR code from their smartphones on the validators to pay for fares when boarding a bus. In addition, the validators
  • Samsung joins OSPT Alliance
    March 23, 2012
    The Open Standard for Public Transport (OSPT) Alliance has announced that Samsung Electronics has joined as a full member and will pursue the development of commercialised semiconductor products for building next-generation transit fare collection systems based on the Cipurse open security standard.
  • How does transit prepare for the next pandemic?
    November 30, 2020
    Covid-19 has taught us that once-in-a-generation events do actually happen sometimes. But Ronald E. Boénau suggests that transport agencies can prepare for the next pandemic - without exactly preparing for it at all…
  • Smart Ticketing Alliance launched
    June 25, 2014
    Two years after signing the Memorandum of Understanding, the five founder members of the Smart Ticketing Alliance formally launched the Alliance, putting it on a formal legal footing which will lead the way towards a single transport implementation specification for NFC phones across Europe and cross border acceptance, facilitating the implementation and deployment of NFC-enabled devices. Encouraged by endorsement from the EU’s Transport Commissioner, Siim Kallas, the Alliance has been busy setting up Wo