Automated system of payment and control of travel in municipal passenger transport in Minsk (ASOKP)

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2017: Launch of travel payment with Visa contactless cards

The company IBA Group announced that the automated fare payment and control system (ASOKP) continues to develop: on September 19, 2017, payment for travel with contactless payWave bank cards became available in the Minsk metro Visa.

The first modernized turnstile with this opportunity appeared at the Lenin Square metro station, next to which there are a number of state institutions and leading higher educational institutions of the country. Payment for travel in the Moscow metro using Visa payWave contactless cards was implemented with the participation of the Minsk Metro State Enterprise, the Capital Transport and Communications State Enterprise, the international payment system Visa, BPS-Sberbank OJSC and IBA Group.

On September 19, Visa contactless cards were launched in the Minsk metro. This is an important milestone in the development of an automated fare payment system in public transport in the city of Minsk in particular and contactless payments in Belarus as a whole. The use of contactless bank cards will make it easier for residents of Minsk and especially guests of the capital of Belarus to pay for travel to the metro. I want to emphasize that our validators, installed and functioning in public transport, were originally designed in order to realize the possibility of accepting fare by all modern means in the future. Thanks to this, in the future, the possibility of paying for travel by bank card will be able to extend to the entire communal transport of Minsk, - said Sergey Akulich, General Director of IBA IT Park, the IBA Group development center.

As noted, the automated fare payment and control system (ASOKP), developed by the IBA Group and the Minsktrans state enterprise, as of September 2017 covers more than 3 thousand buses, trolleybuses and trams, 2 metro lines, 6 trains of city lines of the Belarusian railway and 500 buses of suburban routes. In addition to Minsk and Gomel, the fare payment and dispatch control systems developed by the IBA Group are used in Kaliningrad (Russia), tested in Dushanbe (Tajikistan).

2015: Capabilities, Features, Principle of Operation of the ASOKP

The automated fare payment and control system (ASOKP) is a solution of the Belarusian development center of the international holding IBA Group - IBA Minsk (JV CJSC International Business Alliance). The automated system allows you to build a variety of payment and fare control systems in passenger transport^[1]

On the basis of the IBA Group decision - ASOKP - a system for payment and control of travel in municipal passenger transport in Minsk was built. The system was put into operation on February 1, 2014^[2][3]

System elements

The main elements of the system are:

• Electronic Travel Document (EDS)
• Contact-Free Smart Card Validator
• Electronic composter
• Turnstile
• EDS replenishment devices
• Dispatch Control System
• Information Analysis and Processing Subsystem

All buses, trolleybuses and trams of Minsktrans^[4] they are equipped with electronic composters^[5]for canceling disposable, paper tickets) and contactless smart card validators^[6] reading EPD).

Features

The automated fare payment and control system allows you to effectively combat stowaway travel (by turning off the system for the time of control), forgery of travel documents, as well as make the most accurate accounting of the number of passengers in public transport. Within the framework of the ASOKP in Minsk, instead of a variety of preferential travel documents, a single electronic travel document^[7] is introduced^[8]According to a single electronic travel document, a passenger can pay for travel on trolleybuses, buses (including suburban ones), trams, as well as in the metro and some suburban trains (city lines).

The iCard universal card is based on Mifare Plus technology - the most common contactless smart card technology. More than 70% of all transport systems in the world that use contactless cards to pay for travel use this technology.

Main Objectives of ASOKP Creation

The main goals of creating an automated fare payment and control system (ASOKP) are:

• Ensuring a positive social effect for Minsk and its residents
• Creation of an economically attractive and convenient fare payment system for passengers based on modern technologies
• Improving the convenience and culture of passenger service. Attracting new passengers and social groups to public transport
• Possibility of introducing additional services and integration with other modes of transport
• Expansion of payment with non-cash funds
• Route network optimization based on passenger traffic analysis
• Increase the fare level.

Principle of system operation

Ground transport (buses, trolleybuses and trams), as well as metro turnstiles are equipped with validators (information readers) of contactless smart cards.

Cards are issued for circulation by the processing and emission center of the Ministry of Transport.

The necessary tariff is entered on the EPD. In the future , cards can be replenished many times, including using self-service devices.

In transport, the passenger needs to bring the EPD to the validator/turnstile, as a result of which the cost of the trip is debited from it or the presence of a travel card is checked, payment information is entered on the card and transferred to the processing and emission center^[9]

The controller checks payment on the card using a manual reader of contactless smart cards^[10]Validators and electronic composters are blocked during the inspection. All information on the statistics of sales and use of cards is collected automatically in the processing and emission center and displayed in the Belarus analytics system^[11]

Supported tariffs

The system ensures the current tariff policy, supports all currently available types of travel tickets and a single trip.

Also, all elements of the created system support the possibility of introducing other types of charging:

• Differentiated payment for travel by distance^[12]
• Preferential tariffs using personalized cards.

Integration capabilities

ASOKP includes the possibility of integration:

• With other systems based on similar cards. These can be both service and payment systems and identification
• With navigation support and data transmission system. This makes it possible to implement a system of differentiated fare payment on suburban routes.

Fraud Protection

Fraud protection subsystem:

• Analyzes the information coming to the processing center
• Identifies the facts of the use of illegal or duplicate cards, unpaid tariff replenishment, etc.

Cost-effectiveness

The cost-effectiveness of ASOKP is achieved by:

• Exceptions of the personnel of conductors
• Increase in payments for one-time trips when entering differentiated payment depending on distance
• Improve control efficiency
• Reducing the cost of selling ticket products
• Optimization of the route network based on the analysis of paid trips, passenger traffic and behavioral models of passengers.

ASOKP scale in Minsk

ASOKP covered:

• 2,500 vehicles in Minsk (buses, trolleybuses and trams)
• 2 subway lines
• Trains of the city lines of the Belarusian railway
• 500 buses of commuter routes.

ASOKP successfully passed the test of significantly increased passenger traffic during the World Ice Hockey Championship, held in Minsk in May 2014.

In 2015, the Automated Fare and Control System in Municipal Passenger Transport in Minsk was recognized as the best industry decision of the year at the European IT & Software Excellence Awards European^[13]