Faster transactions. Cost-effective processes. Efficient collection services. Our Automated Fare Collection (AFC) offering comprises an integrated ticketing solution to facilitate travel by public transport. The Modular Design and Open Architecture is future-proof and is able to accept the latest innovative payment and travel options.

Fare Collection

AFC allows passengers to pay for their journey, either with a balance on their card, or with an appropriate travel product. In both cases, the passenger validates their card on an entry/exit reader or platform validator, located strategically in a station.

Fare calculation of a journey may depend on the distance travelled by the passenger. By using GPS technology and / or integration with an existing positioning system, the exact location of the passenger can be determined and used for the billing purposes.

The solution we offer not only has Automated Fare Collection based on positioning, but also sophisticated online monitoring functionality. The online monitoring makes it possible to remotely monitor AFC and, if required, take corrective action on demand. This significantly improves the availability and manageability of the system.

Our AFC system is developed by applying open architecture principles. The advantage of this is that the functions are defined as building blocks and unrelated information is kept independent. As a result, these functions are not dependent on each other and allows them to operate autonomously. The architecture also supports Front-End devices from multiple vendors, making the solutions hardware independent. The customer not only receives a high performance future-proof solution at competitive prices, but also complete freedom in the future development of the infrastructure.

The AFC system ensures seamless travel in the city and helps to improve the quality of life. In addition, it can lead to the broadening of payment and travel opportunities for public transport operators. This technology opens the door to new transportation options that makes it easier for travellers to use public transport. In summary, the AFC solutions have the following advantages:

It protects revenue by means of security
Low-threshold access for the use of public transport
It facilitates the provision of management information for journey analysis and reporting
It stimulates the revenue generated by fare collection.
It offers a range of possibilities for expanding and developing business activities including the support of several alternatives to allow interoperability with other transport systems

Payment and Travel Options

Depending on their requirements, the public transport operator can choose from various payment and travel options for their customers. Solutions we offer and support are: Smart Card, Mobile NFC, Barcode and EMV (both bank card and mobile).

In addition to the existing AFC systems based on traditional pre-paid tickets, AFC allows the possibility to travel using account based ticketing. The advantage of this is that the complexity and security of the validation device is moved to the cloud. This has a positive impact on the manageability and maintenance of the system. In addition, the cost of the validation devices are minmised through the use of lightweight validators.

We offer EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) contactless bank card validation possibilities. This makes traveling with a contactless bank card and provides the following benefits:

No pre-registration required
Many existing bank card and mobile users
No need to pre-load a ticket
No costs associated with issuing of tickets
Users are already in possession of a secure card

Our Automated Fare Collection Projects

The HTM Avenio ticketing system consists of the complete Automated Fare Collection (AFC) system which has been deployed on 60 trams of the HTM, the tram operator of The Hague.

For the Road and Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai we have developed a system, that enables users who have a suitable chip card to purchase services and make certain inquiries with their mobile phone.