The pandemic has forced multiple changes in public transportespecially at the level of air management and renewalso that the shared mobility be as safe as possible. Retouches were also needed in relation to the Travelerssuch as the veto of the use of cash in the payment of single accounts in the buses to avoid contact with cash. Until now, the ticket had to be purchased with a complicated system of QR code. To this day, the day Barcelona Metropolitan Transport (TMB) has already installed in all its buses (almost a thousand) and in all its lines (hundred) bank card reader. It starts here because it was the most urgent, but the idea is to extend the method to the metropolitan bus, the metro and also to Railways and Suburbs.
The previous system was anything but user-friendly. Considering that in addition the single ticket is usually bought by casual travelersit was not exactly a method seductive. Was needed download the TMB application, register, go to the ‘buy tickets’ section, select the selected one, buy through the bank’s ‘app’ and enter the resulting QR on a browser. Now all you have to do is wipe your credit card, which will be again transport ticket in the event that a bus auditor. The TMB worker will have access to the last four digits of the payer’s card to make sure they actually paid the 2.40 euros for the service.
for the tourist
In addition to the physical card, other supports that included the card (debit or credit) can also be used, such as the cell phone or watches smart. Single tickets mean less than 2% of validations TMB totals and the average user are usually the touristhence also that the price is so high if purchased with other titles, such as the T-Usuallywhich are those used by most loyal travelers of public transport.
On the extension of this technology to alternatives for shared mobility, Pere TorresCEO of the Metropolitan Transport Authority (ATM) explained that the bus was a priority because, unlike the subway, it did not have ticket machines. Anyway, the idea is that this type of payment, which does not issue a physical ticket, and it is also a saving (and an environmental message), extends to the railway line. Torres also promoted the willingness to negotiate with the private operators of metropolitan bus lines, where, unlike the Barcelona network, the single ticket is still paid for in cash. “By 2022 – he assured – we hope to be able to start a pilot test to see how it works”.
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more agility
Laia Bonet, president of TMB and councilor for mobility, said “the public-private partnership“which made this technology possible and pointed out that it would also allow greater agility at stopping placeswhich should have an impact, not even a slight one, on one of the weaknesses of the bus network: the commercial speed, stuck at 12 miles per hour. Bonet also stressed that Barcelona was the first Spanish city to implement this payment system, in which the companies Trade Global Payments and Inetum.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com