In April 1999, the ERG Motorola Alliance won a contract to design and install an integrated smart card ticketing system for the Land Transport Authority of Singapore. On 13 April 2002, the ERG Group’s smart card ticketing system went into full service on Singapore’s public transport network. Over 8 million smart cards have been sold and the system is now handling over 10 million transactions per day.
The Singapore project (known as Ez-Link) is now one of the largest integrated smart card based transit systems in the world with more than 24,000 readers in place across the 2 transit operators covering a total of 6 separate operations for bus, rail and light rail. The system is unique in that it is closed for both bus and rail. Each bus has a smart card reader located at the front entry of the bus that records where each passenger’s journey commences. At the end of the journey, passengers present their card to a reader positioned at the exit door of the bus at which time the correct fare is calculated and deducted. All rail systems are fully gated.
The system has simplified the process of travelling, as passengers are no longer required to select the appropriate fare for each journey. As well, unlike magnetic stripe tickets, there is no limit to the number of times value can be reloaded onto a smart card. Many reload options are available, from ATM style add-value machines, telephone reload and internet reload, to automatic debits from bank accounts. The Singapore project also included the installation of ERG’s central clearing house and data processing network. Singapore joins its Asian neighbour Hong Kong as a large-scale user of smart cards for its transit ticketing system. The systems, installed by ERG in these two high profile Asian cities are processing transactions generated from 4 billion passenger trips annually.
Fact Sheet CUSTOMER: Land Transport Authority of Singapore (LTA) CONTRACT TYPE: Design and implement KEY DATES: Contract Award: April 1999 Revenue Ready Complete: April 2002 MODES SUPPORTED: Bus, rail and light rail SCOPE: Total System Devices 24,000 SOFTWARE DEPLOYED: ERG’s MASS (Multi-application smart card system)
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