Complex Porto Public Transport System Upgraded with Mobile Ticketing Solution

The Porto metropolitan area has a new mobile ticketing solution.

NFC & BLE Micro-Location Mobile Ticketing Solution

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5 Min
August 24, 2021
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Logo Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP)
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Public Transport in Porto

The Porto metropolitan area has a new mobile ticketing solution: University of Porto researchers Marta Campos Ferreira, Teresa Galvão Dias and João Falcão e Cunha have developed a system that uses both NFC & BLE technology. All facts and figures in this article are derived from: M. C. Ferreira, T. G. Dias and J. Falcão e Cunha, (2021) “Anda: An Innovative Micro-Location Mobile Ticketing Solution Based on NFC and BLE Technologies,” in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems.

Complex Porto Public Transport System Upgraded

“Porto’s existing public transport system was implemented in 2003, bringing together 19 operators of different modes of transportation. The mobile ticketing solution and application Anda resulted from the collaboration between the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) and the Intermodal Transport of Porto (TIP).” – Marta Campos Ferreira, Teresa Galvão Dias, and João Falcão e Cunha

Reducing Public Transport Complexity

Porto’s public transport is arranged in an intermodal system that was implemented in 2003. The fare price depends on how many different zones passengers travel through on their journey. With this check-in-only system, passengers must know exactly through how many zones they will travel through in order to purchase the correct ticket in advance.

This requires a good knowledge of the zones and the transportation routes, making the correct ticket purchase a daunting task for anyone who is not as familiar with the system. The mobile ticketing solution was aimed to tackle these challenges.

Flexible Payment

Instead of pre-purchasing tickets before the trip, mobile ticketing enables customers to be more flexible, allowing for a more relaxed and user-friendly experience of public transport – especially for new customers.

Integrating Multiple Transport Providers

Porto’s metropolitan area public transport system consists of 19 operators, with a recorded number of 195.5 million trips in the network. The intermodal system already included all operators in a universal fare price system, but also offered a potential for greater efficiency and benefits for customers and operators that derive from the implementation of a mobile solution, which sparked the research and development process in the first place.

Porto’s public transport network is divided into 47 geographic travel zones. Fares are based on how many zones passengers travel through on their journey.

Porto’s public transport network is divided into 47 geographic travel zones. Fares are based on how many zones passengers travel through on their journey.

Check-in/Be-out Mobile Solution Anda

Check-in to Begin Your Journey

Once downloaded, using the anda app is simple: Public transport customers tap their NFC-enabled smartphone to a check-in terminal at the beginning of their journey. The app registers the start of a new journey without customers having to going through the lengthy process of purchasing the correct ticket in advance.

Public transport customers tap their NFC-enabled smartphone to a check-in terminal at the beginning of their journey.

Once downloaded, using the anda app is simple: Public transport customers tap their NFC-enabled smartphone to a check-in terminal at the beginning of their journey.

Automatic Travel Recording

After check-in and the beginning of a new journey, the Anda app records intermediate stops automatically through a micro-location system. With bluetooth active, the smartphone communicates with the BLE beacons that are installed in different modes of public transportation such as buses or train stations, registering the travel points and enabling passengers a better overview of their journey.

Passengers can view journey history and monthly debit in the app.

Passengers can view journey history and monthly debit in the app.

App Journey Logging, Fare Calculation and Payment

When a passenger moves out of range of the BLE beacons upon exiting public transportation, the app automatically ends the recorded journey. Customers can view a trip history of all journeys that they have undertaken, as well as an overview of prices for their travels. The billing cycle of the app occurs monthly, and is optimized with the anda ex-post billing algorithm.

Every month, all journeys made by the passenger are analysed and the cheapest possible fare is calculated. For example, if a customer has accumulated enough single journeys within a zone that exceed the price of a monthly subscription, the price for that subscription is charged instead of the combined cost of all single journeys.

The Anda App tracks and logs journeys and calculates the cheapest fare.

The Anda App tracks and logs journeys and calculates the cheapest fare.

NFC and BLE Solution and Anda-App Tested in Field Trial

A New Application Field for BLE Technology

Historically, BLE beacons have been used for location-based services, but not for public transport mobile payment solutions. For these types of applications, previous solutions included Wi-Fi, 3G/4G, QR-Codes and NFC. In order to determine which characteristics BLE beacons would require, experiments were conducted by the University of Porto researchers.

Implementation Challenges Overcome in One-Year Trial Period

First, the solution was implemented in four selected metro, train and bus lines in the Porto metropolitan area. Gradually, the solution was expanded to encompass the entire network by June 2018, one year after the trial period had begun.

The challenges were numerous: The app did not always function as intended, suffering 55 total crashes during the trial period, or by having difficulty to detect beacons during the trip. Also, the app and communication with bluetooth had to be applied to a wide range of mobile devices and more beacons installed overall to achieve the required coverage.

Laboratory experiments were conducted in order to study the potential of BLE beacons.

Laboratory experiments were conducted in order to study the potential of BLE beacons.

Solution Effectiveness Confirmed by Field Trial

Prior to the commercial rollout in 2018, a field trial with 140 real passengers was carried out in the Porto metropolitan region. The trial lasted for one year, during which feedback was gathered from participants using focus groups, E-Mail and social media correspondence as well as questionnaires.

When asked whether they would keep using the app after the trial period, participants unanimously answered with yes. With the feedback of the field trial participants and the development of a real-time monitoring platform, functional errors in the Anda mobile ticketing solution and the app were able to be solved.

The field trial enabled a better judgement of how many BLE beacons needed to be installed, as well as at which locations.

The field trial enabled a better judgement of how many BLE beacons needed to be installed, as well as at which locations.

Deployment of NFC and BLE Beacons in the Public Transport Network

Deployment in the Porto Metro

The BLE beacons were deployed not within the train carriages themselves, but at the different stations. Based on the results of the field trial, more beacons were installed compared to the technology tests, as it was found that the BLE-beacon coverage with the originally planned number was not sufficient.

Integration in Buses

One BLE beacon per bus was found to be sufficient in order to provide the services of the anda mobile ticketing solution to customers. The beacon is placed near the front entrance of the bus. For double-decker buses, two beacons are placed, one at the front entrance and one at the rear of the bus. There are a total of 157 bus lines in Porto, of which 73 are publicly operated and 84 of which are privately operated, but all of which utilise the Anda solution.

Changing to a New System

In the solution deployment, the legacy of the existing transport system had to be dealt with in several ways. For example, old ticketing terminals had to be upgraded in order to be NFC-enabled for the solution to work as intented. Furthermore, the research found that it required supportive measures in order to teach the passengers how to utilise the new system, as well as inform them of the benefits for an effective implementation and transition to the new system to occur.

The mobile ticketing solution including the Anda Infrastructure was commercially deployed in buses, trains and the metro in 2018. Within 9 months of its launch, the Anda app had been downloaded over 270.000 times.

The mobile ticketing solution including the Anda Infrastructure was commercially deployed in buses, trains and the metro in 2018. Within 9 months of its launch, the Anda app had been downloaded over 270.000 times.

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