Buying Metro tickets through NFC could be a reality by 2016

A new report from Juniper Research has found that 1 in 8 (13 percent) of North American and Western European mobile users will use their NFC-enabled mobile phone as a metro rail or bus ticket by 2016, compared to less than one percent, today. Worldwide, mobile users are now beginning to adopt mobile tickets as an integrated part of their mobile lifestyle, whether for airline, road or rail transport, sporting or entertainment event access. You can read the entire report from the Mobile Ticketing whitepaper that’s available for download.

Do more with NFC soon

The report found that, while mobile tickets of all types are growing in popularity, the ability to “tap” an NFC phone containing a mobile ticket against an entrance gate has tremendous user appeal. For operators, a mobile phone ticket also provides new marketing and sales opportunities previously not available using paper or contactless smartcard tickets. We already the smartcard system, which lets you buy a ticket by simply placing it on a sensor, but the thing about this is that you can forget your card at home at time or could even misplace it, but you never leave without your phone. The report warns, however, that NFC Ticketing must be thoroughly tested before being launched to the public.

For metro and bus tickets in particular, speed of passenger processing is of the essence and queues must not be allowed to build up as a result of ticket processing delays, either in mobile phones, gating or back office systems. According to report author David Snow, “NFC mobile ticketing is still in its early stages, but it holds great promise across the entire mobile ticketing market.  Metro ticketing is leading the way as an NFC ticket is a natural evolution from a contactless transport card and can leverage the existing infrastructure.  Add to this the option of simultaneous payment and you have created a compelling user experience.” We hope that with the right infrastructure, ticketing through NFC will soon be a reality.