BKK (Centre for Budapest Transport) recently awarded Scheidt & Bachmann the contract modernization of the ticketing system for public transport throughout Greater Budapest in October 2014. Scheidt & Bachmann and their subcontractor Octopus Transactions Ltd., the developer of Hong Kong’s system have collaborated to develop and implement an advanced ticketing system that is on par with the systems in Hong Kong, London and Chicago, which are leading world-wide. The project is considered one of the most ambitious IT development projects in Hungary. It will fundamentally change public transport in Budapest and make it more attractive. The new concept concentrates on services, focused on high customer satisfaction: For the riders the system must be simple and user-friendly, while being fraud-resistant at the same time. BKK expects the modern ticketing system to both significantly increase ridership and revenue and strengthen the positive image of the Hungarian capital.
The technological basis of this project is an ID-based system architecture. ID-based systems are already used successfully in many industries worldwide. The core principle of these systems is to move all the intelligence into a central background system (the "cloud"). For BKK, this means that all data and processes can be managed centrally and thus very efficiently. It allows the introduction of new concepts such as “best price calculation” and flexible pricing. The open system design allows the subsequent integration of future developments such as Open Payment or NFC technology.
Each passenger is connected by a ID media with a personal or anonymous account that registers all transactions. Various contactless ID media can be assigned to each account, they are solely for identification of the passenger and contain no other ticket information. To make public transport as attractive as possible, it was important for BKK that different ID devices can be used simultaneously – depending on the requirements of each customer group. In addition to anonymous or personalized smart cards, contactless bank cards and any media that support the standard ISO 14443 can be used. Modern sales channels are introduced at the same time, by integrating mobile phones and the Internet.
This major project will be implemented in multiple phases into the end of 2017. To ensure a smooth migration from the old system into one of the most advanced ticketing systems in the world, the various user groups are progressively added into the new system: in 2016, the employee badges of BKK employees will serve as ID media. In the next project phase, the system will be extended to people who use the public transport free of charge, such as pensioners or people with disabilities. The acceptance of this phase is planned for summer 2016. Subsequently, the introduction of personalized smart cards will be completed, followed by the implementation of anonymous smart cards and contactless credit cards.
The field devices which are the components most visible to the public, include 800 gates and 10,000 validators which will be supplied by Scheidt & Bachmann and installed in the metro stations and on 2,500 vehicles of BKK. 350 ticket vending machines from Scheidt & Bachmann from a previous assignment are already in operation. They will be gradually integrated into the new system, converting from the previous processing of paper tickets to processing and issuing of smart cards.