QR and Fare Collection - Online or Offline?
A giant leap for Japan, but a step backwards for the AFCS industry? (1)
That was the question that popped into my head when I read the news that JR East is planning to replace magnetic stripe tickets with QR codes in 2027. If the images associated with this announcement are to be believed, then Japanese railway passengers can look forward to printed QR paper tickets, no less!
I have no doubt that as long as Japan remains a low-crime, high-trust society, this will work as well as you would expect from Japan and especially from its railway operators.
Furthermore, this looks like a re-paid proprietary QR ticketing solution, which is easier to design and operate than an open system that combines re-paid with out-paid tickets.
The Department of Transport (DOTR) of the Philippines, in their preliminary statements regarding a national AFCS concession, left no doubt that any national AFCS system must be open, interoperable and ubiquitous.
In my article, I am trying to understand the issues that may arise from the use of QR codes for ticketing in high-traffic mass transit systems, such as the light rail systems in Manila.
I will leave the solutions that could address some or even all of the problems to a future post.