Smart ticketing is a ticketing system where a travel ticket is electronically stored on a smart card or a smartphone. This system allows the user to skip the ticket counter at the station. Users can buy tickets for a specific period in advance or load credit onto their account. To authorise their travel, the users have to swipe their card or phone over an NFC reader on a ticket machine or a barrier or show a QR code to a scanner. The machine then verifies the existence of a ticket or charges the account.
The use of a smart cards for ticketing also allows a person to make a journey that involves transfers within or between different transport modes with a single ticket that is valid for the complete journey, modes being buses, trains, subways, ferries, etc.
The contactless smartcard is scanned by the transport operator either at a static or handheld ticket machine, or barrier, to authorize your travel.
Smart tickets are more secure than their paper counterparts. They are harder to replicate and when a smartcard is lost or stolen, the ticket associated with it can be revoked easily. There is also an environmental advantage. Paper tickets are usually used once and thrown away. Smartcards can be used for years by one passenger or returned and used again by another.
