The pandemic accelerated the digitalisation of transit tickets and payment systems. Handling paper tickets and cash had become a source of concern in the customer journey. With their ordinary work schedules in disarray and facing a period of uncertainty, many passengers turned to buying single tickets, with no further commitment.
Even before the health crisis, Keolis had already become the first operator to provide Open Payment in France. That was in Dijon in The concept? Enable passengers to validate their bus tickets using their credit card or the payment card on their smartphone at a validation kiosk. Unlike payment upon validation, which counts each trip one by one, Open Payment applies the best fare to passengers after the trip, based on their public transport use over a given period such as one day.
Open Payment : a contactless payment system that allows passengers to pay for their travel with a payment card and to be debited later for their journeys, applying the best rate available to the passenger based on their public transport use over a given period such as one day.
Payment upon validation : a contactless payment system that allows passengers to use a credit or debit card or smartphone as a ticket, but unlike open payment, it counts each trip one by one throughout the day and does not apply a preferential fare throughout the day. When boarding the bus, passengers validate their credit card or the payment card activated on their smartphone at the validation terminal, just as they would swipe their transit card, which means no physical contact with the driver, and an end to payment receipts and paper tickets.
During ticket inspections, passengers can prove they purchased their ticket by scanning or swiping their credit card or smartphone. To check their purchases and amounts, they can download their receipts and review their transit history using an online portal. If they make multiple trips, they will automatically benefit from the best fare. For example, the price of a day pass will apply starting with the third validated trip, allowing them to benefit on that day from an unlimited number of trips at a capped fare.
