Frankfurt Widens Its NFC-Enabled Transit Network

Since most transit networks in Germany operate on an honor system, enforced by random checks of travelers' tickets, RMV will not need to install any NFC-enabled turnstiles or gates. Instead, commuters using the electronic tickets will be able to display them on their handsets to teams of "controllers" conducting surprise checks. Eventually, RMV may choose to equip the controllers with handheld readers to check both paper and electronic tickets.

The initial test of NFC ticketing was developed and implemented in cooperation with Nokia and T-Systems. The cost of the implementation is estimated at €150,000 ($220,000).

In 2005, RMV ran a 10-month technical feasibility test of a system enabling customers to use NFC-enabled mobile phones to pay for travel on busses in the city of Hanau, just outside Frankfurt. At the time, the transit authority claimed, it was the world's first NFC pilot for the public transport sector.

"It was a big hit, " Preuss says. After the test was finished, RMV expanded the piloted system (see Bus Riders in Hanau Use RFID to Go), and now several hundred passengers use it. "The Frankfurt ConTag application is a further development of the Hanau system that incorporates the latest in NFC technology," he says. "In the next few years, we plan to migrate the systems into one, after more NFC-enabled cell phones are on the market."

In addition, since 2006, RMV has offered mobile-phone ticketing via a wireless application based on the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). Some 6,500 customers use this system, but the authority often receives complaints because it requires users to manually enter information about departure stations and destinations when purchasing a ticket. "With ConTag, the whole system will get a lot easier for users," Preuss says.

RMV eventually plans to expand the ConTag application to its entire network, which covers rails and roads in the Rhine-Main area. According to Preuss, RMV hopes to move more quickly with its NFC implementation, but the authority is first waiting for NFC-enabled phones to become more widely available on the market.

Separately, Germany's national rail network, managed by Deutsche Bahn, is working on a similar mobile-phone ticketing system, known as Touch and Travel.