A roadmap towards a passenger-oriented public transport tariff system

Abstract

The currentpublic Dutch transport tariff system is complex and difficult to understand forthe passenger. It is assumed that passengers feel like they are not getting the“best price”, but do not have the means to validate this. Furthermore, there isa large offer of tickets and subscriptions available which can lead toinsecurity for the passenger.   The Dutchpublic transport is provided by several carriers and organized in adecentralized manner. The OV-chipcard is the main payment method within thesystem. The current tariff system of the Dutch public transport works with astarting rate and a kilometre rate. The starting rate is determined nationally,while the kilometre rate differs per region and/or carrier.   The landscape of Dutch public transport ischanging. Firstly, within the coming years, the OV-chipcard will be replacedwith a new system where the price calculations will happen in a back officeinstead of at the card readers. The introduction of this new system is a greatmoment to revise the tariff system. In addition, multiple new forms of (shared)mobility are appearing which, together with the current public transport,create a Mobility as a Service landscape.   Assignment Creating a roadmap to implementthe ideal passenger-oriented tariff system for public (and shared) transport inthe Netherlands.   The goal of thisproject was to develop a user-centred solution to improve the experience of thetraveller concerning the tariff system of the Dutch public transport, and otherforms of shared transport. The solution will consist of changes in thetariff system and will consist of short- and long-term developments. The futurevision (ideal passenger-oriented tariff system) and steps towards this visionwill be combined into a roadmap.   SeamlessPersonal Mobility Lab Thisgraduation project is executed within the Expertisecentre for User-CentredMobility Services, one of the projects of the Seamless Personal Mobility Lab,which is one of the Delft Design Labs of the faculty of Industrial DesignEngineering.   This graduation projectwas preceded by a research project, an international benchmark was conducted tomap the pros and cons of different public transport tariff systems. Duringthis benchmark, the different systems were compared on, among others, priceawareness, transparency, ticketing and pricing. The benchmark was conducted inAntwerp, South Tyrol, London, and Helsinki.   Results During this project, a strategicroadmap, visual roadmap and implementation cardset were designed and created.Within the roadmaps short- and long term developments are defined to leadtowards the ideal passenger oriented public transport tariff system.   The future vision is defined as: In thefuture, all passengers should be confident about and in control of theirspendings on public transport. Therefore there should be a unified andtransparent tariff system that is adopted by all carriers. Additionally,carriers and other mobility providers should cooperate to offer the passengerpersonalized and all-inclusive travel products for the best price.   The roadmaps, combined with theimplementation cardset, offer a user-centred solution and are a great source ofinspiration for the current developments within public transport.