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ScienceDirect Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000 www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

World Conference on Transport Research - WCTR 2016 Shanghai. 10-15 July 2016

Technical and Economical Evaluation of E-ticketing in Tehran Bus Network Babak Mirbaha a, Hooman Alenoori Foroshani b*, Navid Amirpashaei b a

b

Assisstant Professor, Imam Khomeini Univerity, Qazvin, Iran Research assisstant, Tarahan Parseh research institute,No.23, 55 alley, Jahanara St., Tehran,1436815361, Iran

Abstract During last decades, dramatic increase in a number of passenger vehicles causes congestion on roads, and ensuing, travel time and air pollution were increased. Thus, authorities are persuaded to focus on the development of public transportation. In so doing, to increase the desirability of public transportation, three general approaches; namely, infrastructure development, fleet modernization and improvement of passenger service are recommended. Since the infrastructure development and fleet modernization are time-consuming as well as costly; therefore, in the short term period authorities should apply some incentive policies such as fare policies to encourage the use of public transportation. In addition to facilitate fare payment process, E-ticketing leads to a decrease in dwell time, fare evasion and human forces. Taking technical and economical into account, the paper aims to study the implementation of E-ticketing in the Tehran bus network as the most extensive public transportation network in Iran. Developing the use of E-ticketing would reduce the payment's dwell time from 3.7 seconds for cash-payment to about 2 seconds; moreover, a number of controlling operators will decrease from 21 to about 14 operators per 100 kilometers bus routes. Change in the fare payment will also results a reduction in fare evasion in the bus network which is 13 percent. All aforementioned parameters will create revenues for administrators and citizens. Results of this study will help policymakers to implement E-ticketing so as to provide better services and transparent data for scheduling and passenger management in the stations.

© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Peer-review under responsibility of WORLD CONFERENCE ON TRANSPORT RESEARCH SOCIETY. Keywords: Public Transportation; E-ticketing; Bus Network: Fare Payment ;

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 00989122009307; fax: 00982188046905. E-mail address: [email protected] 2214-241X © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Peer-review under responsibility of WORLD CONFERENCE ON TRANSPORT RESEARCH SOCIETY.

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H.Alenoori; B.Mirbaha; N.Amirpashaei/ Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2017) 000-000

1. Introduction Growing urban population, financial resources limitation, increased use of personal cars, air pollution, traffic congestion and limited capacity of urban streets have forced city officials to keep up with traffic restrictions for personal cars and the implementation of demand management strategies besides changing their attention to the development of public transportation. In so doing, to increase the desirability of public transportation, three general approaches; namely, infrastructure development, fleet modernization and improvement of passenger service are recommended. Since the infrastructure development and fleet modernization are time-consuming as well as costly; therefore, in the short term period authorities should apply some incentive policies such as fare policies to encourage public transportation. In addition to facilitate fare payment process, E-ticketing leads to a decrease in dwell time, fare evasion and human forces. In addition, the use of smart cards lead to reduced travel time and enhanced traffic flow. These changes will be managed public transport which is meant to improve the quality of services in public transport, saving travel costs and better management of multi-modal journeys. [1] In this paper, authors have tried to evaluate Tehran's bus network e-ticketing from technical and economical point of view. Firstly, different fare payment systems were reviewed and effect of eticketing as a fare payment was studied. Secondly, literatures were reviewed and Tehran bus network was selected as a case study. Finally, technical and economic benefits of e- ticketing in Tehran bus network were identified. 2. Review of fare payment systems Various types of tickets are using in public transportation systems that the type has direct relationship with their cost. Accordingly, passengers considering payment system, payment cost and also their daily trip status, select the most appropriate payment method. The types of fare payment systems have been investigated in Table 1. Table 1. Types of fare payment methods [2]

Ticket type

Comments

Paper ticket

The oldest ticket system in the world that has a variety of types such as stored value tickets or stored ride tickets. This system is cheap and easy to use. However, due to the ease of fraud and the lack of accurate statistics of passengers, using it not recommended.

Tokens or coins (cash payment) Magnetic card

The easiest way to manage and collect fares is using tokens or coins. With this method, the number of control and sale operators and also required control time will reduce. But if cash payment has remaining money, more time will spent for giving back money. These types of card have the same size of the credit card that all the information is recorded on a black strip behind the card. This type of card is more secure than cash payments, but it is not resistant to mobile magnetic waves and folding.

Contact ticket card

These types of card are similar to magnetic cards, but instead of magnetic strip have a chip embedded in the card which has ability to store more information. Using these cards, codified information about trips can be collected and used in future planning. The cards can also be used to provide other services in addition to public transportation.

Contactless ticket card

In these types of card integrated circuits are embedded that they can store or process information and using radio waves contact with the terminals. Although, the card doesn't need to contact directly with reader, it should be at a specified distance with the device to have successful connection. Using these cards, codified information about trips can be collected and used to provide other services in addition to public transportation.

Payment by mobile phone

In this way mobile phones are used to pay passengers' travel costs. Buying tickets by mobile phone can be done by SMS or phones with barcode. Using this method is secure and comfortable. However, in order to use this system, specific technical requirements are needed. The contactless chip cards can also be embedded in mobile phones.

H.Alenoori; B.Mirbaha; N.Amirpashaei/ Transportation Research Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

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3. Literature Review Basically, the change in each system, along with the benefits that will bring to the system, can be caused direct or indirect costs for the system. In some circumstances, the benefits of this system will be significant, so that costs will be covered. In order to use e-ticketing (contactless smart cards) for fare payment, although, city managers require spending money to improve and modernize the system in broad level, benefits of such changing attitudes is significant. In this section it is tried to survey some of e-ticketing effects on fare payment in the leading countries. Totally, it is notable that the use of e-ticketing have a direct impact on reducing the passenger dwell time in station, reducing fare evasion and fraud, reducing human force, reducing the excessive consumption of printing paper tickets as well as reducing environmental degradation and improving the relationship between passengers and drivers because of reducing their direct connection. The few studies have been done to evaluate the benefits of e-ticketing, but in most of these studies the highlight role of reducing the dwell time and its effect on service and schedule improvement has been surveyed. Hafezi et al.; represent a decrease of 2.67 times in dwell time in payment using the card compared to payment using cash. [3] Studies of Fletcher et al. Illustrate that this reduction is about 26 percent of time spent in public transportation system. Based on Reban studies, by using e-ticketing instead of cash payment, dwell time will be reduced about 6.6 seconds. It has been estimated that if all citizens using e-ticketing, approximately 7.1 million dollars will be saved. [4] Rodset and Bang (2006) found that due to the 10 percent reduction in travel time along the bus route, the number of passengers will increase by about 7 to 10 percent, [5] in similar studies Hong Kong and UK represents an increase of 21.1 and 9 percent in the number of passengers, respectively. [6] Another important factor in using e- ticket is improving ticket security. In this field, frauds carried out in the public transportation system in London is caused losing about 10 million Euros in the London bus and subway system [7].Eventually, the cost-benefit analysis of using smart card in Trondheim represents the benefits to costs ratio of about 1.96, which shows that this project is profitable compared to the its cost. [8] 4. Case Study Tehran, with an area of over 730 square kilometers and a population of over eight million people, is the largest city in Iran and 25th world's populated cities in the World. This city has a dense network of highways. Despite of the urban streets and public transportation infrastructure improvement in recent years, Tehran faces traffic congestion at peak evening and morning hours. In the recent years, it is tried to increase the contribution of public transportation and decrease the contribution of personal car by development of BRT and urban rail systems. Tehran implemented e-ticketing by smart cards in 2008. Prior to implementation of e-ticketing, fare payment was based on paper-tickets and cash payment. Passengers still can pay their fare with cash payment or smart card in regular bus network but fare payment in bus rapid transit network (expect No.7 BRT line) is with prepaid payment that passengers paid their fare with smart card at the entrance of stations. Passengers are offered discounts about 30 percent if they use smart cards instead of cash payment in bus network system. The current bus's portion in passenger's daily travel is about 17 percent, which according to planning it is going to be about 25 percent in 2025. [9] In recent years, in order to encourage citizens to use public vehicles, several measures such as considering special routes for public transportation vehicles (bus lanes or BRT lanes), bus fleet modernization, developing fleet and improving services to passengers is carried out. In order to improve services, one of the most important measures is integration of payment systems in Tehran public transportation network, that citizens only with using public transport ticket cards will be able to use this network in the fastest time. The usage of ticket cards in addition to integrating fare payment system will cause technical and economic benefits for citizens and city management. In this section it is tried to by reviewing the advantages of this payment method, the usage of a ticket card is evaluated from a technical and economic point of view.

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4.1. Technical evaluation of ticket fare payment card use In this section we will try to survey the advantages of the ticket cards from technical point of view. Some technical advantages that this system will provide are reduction in dwell time, reduction the number of human force, applying different pricing policies possibility and codification planning fleet allocation for BRTs. However, in this regard, some environmental benefits such as reducing the use of paper for printing tickets and bills, as well as social benefits such as reducing driver and passenger contacts and reducing sensitivity towards fare increase is notable. 4.1.1. Reducing the dwell time As mentioned in the previous section, the role of payment method in system's dwell time is undeniable and should be discussed and examined in each area separately. According to observed variables and reviewing previous studies it can be perceive that the passengers' behavior in usage of Tehran buses is a little different from other studies in this area. These differences can be focused on three areas of how boarding and alighting, arrangement and the payment fare method. It is because that in Iran the bus doors are used simultaneously for alighting and boarding while in other countries there are separate entrance and exit doors for this purpose. Other difference is related to gender segregation of women and men in the bus as if there is no such restriction in other countries and thus there are no separated doors for alighting and boarding in Iran. The difference in the bus usage's behavior in Iran and other countries is not only focused on the arrangement and passengers alighting and boarding, but also the passenger's payment behavior has an important impact on calculation of the bus's dwell time at each station, somehow in most countries, fare payment is done while boarding the bus whereas in Iran this payment due to lack of trust to the system of fare generally is done during the alighting of the bus, and only in BRTs the passengers pay fares before boarding bus. [10] In this purpose inventory form is provided and the effective factors in peak and off peak periods in 7 BRT lines and 18 regular bus lines is collected. It should be noted that the type of the bus route and fare payment method is considered, somehow in BRTs a model for payment out of the bus and in regular bus a model for combinatorial payment (card and cash) is provided. Thus, built dwell time models in pre-paid fare method are based on the maximum number of boarded or alighted passengers, while in the combinatorial payment method, the average dwell time is for total boarded passengers, for total passengers who have paid cash fares and total passengers who have paid using the card. [10] In this way in prepaid fare method (BRTs), the dwell time of 1.1 seconds for boarded passengers and 1.5 seconds for alighted passengers is obtained. While, in the combinatorial payment method, the dwell time of 1.1 seconds for boarding and 2 seconds for the alighting with card payment and 3.7 seconds for alighting with cash is obtained. Due to the obtained time it can be found that fare payment using the card will cause saving 1.7 seconds per passenger in combinatorial payment method and saving 2.2 seconds per passenger in prepaid fare method and so will cause reducing bus dwell time in the network. This time savings can reduce headways between buses and improving buses' services in network. [10] 4.1.2. Reducing usage of labor forces Usage of smart fare payment systems due to the expansion of the bus network will cause the need of supporting human forces for the purpose of validation, releasing and distributing ticket in network and also the constant presence of personnel at the station and vehicles reduce. Looking at the number of personnel and public transportation network's workers in Tehran shows that the number of kiosks and ticket operator staff in bus network in 2010 (the last year of using paper ticket) is equivalent to 820 people for a network with a length of 3916 km, including 700 people in kiosks and 120 people for registering fees (an important point in this issue is that the mentioned human force in 2010 is related only to the number of employed people in kiosks and staffs for registering fees and there are not enough information about the number of employed people in weighing, eradication and printing ticket). These days, with respect to BRT and city public transportation development, that cause increasing in the network length up to 5594 Km, number of staff employed in the network is equivalent to 785; which 600 persons are employed in BRTs, 140 persons in Tosan kiosks (Ticket Operator), and 45 persons in bus data extraction. Statistics


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comparative surveys show that number of required labor force for ticket selling and controlling is reduced from 20.93 to 14.03 persons per 100 Km of network length. Considering extending BRT lines, which have more control on labor force in comparison with other public transportation lines in Tehran, this reduction presents electronic ticket cards' effective role in "electronic cities" and staff decrease. [11] 4.1.3. Possible pricing policy and fleet planning Fare as common point of connection between driver and passenger is one of important points in policy and planning transportation system that is calculated, paid, and collected in various methods. In determining fare rate, different purposes (attracting maximum passengers, providing maximum income, and increasing usage of public transportation) is considered. In constant calculation method, although ease of payment is one of important points, because of social justice absence among passenger, it is tried to regional method or district method is used. Features of these fare calculation methods are shown in table 2. Table 2. Fare calculation features and circumstances evaluation

Type of fare Features Social justice Attracting passenger Collecting fare Ease of collecting Ease of control Ease of passenger use Queue length Network type Travel distance

Constant

Regional

District

Weak Good Changing Excellent Excellent Excellent Short Any type Short

Good Very good Good Very good Weak Very good Middle Divisible in region Changing

Very good Very good Very good Weak Weak Weak Long Long lines Changing

Although cash payment is easy, some issues are including the dwell time in changing money, direct connection and conflict between driver and passengers, and problem of carrying collected money cause that non-cash method such as fare payment using card to be replaced with cash method. It is because that in these methods in addition to ease of payment, it is possible that, providing different discount, attract more passengers and encourage them to use public transportation more. Also, using these methods it is feasible to acquire useful data about the number of boarded and alighted passengers in each station or each line and utilize these data to plan for assigning bus-fleet and line scheduling in future. Furthermore, using non-cash payment methods enables applying different policies for various regions and social levels or encourages citizens to use public transportation by reducing fares in central regions. In addition to fare calculation and payment methods, fare collection way is also one of effective parameters in passenger comfort, vehicle stopping time, and system functional features generally. Fare payment method can affect passenger attraction rate, service quality, fare collection expenses, and usage of different fare structures availability. Generally, out-vehicle payment is significantly more desirable than in-vehicle payment because it does not invade passengers while boarding and alighting. On the other hand, in-vehicle fare payment could affect operation speed or even boarded passengers' distribution. [12] 4.1.4. reducing environmental damage surveys show that producing per ton paper use 17 forest trees and also this process needs some energy equivalent about 20 gigajoules and 300000 liters water. Moreover, in paper landfill, methane gas is produced which cause greenhouse gases and global warming increase. Also considering growth and evolving of forest coverage required time for producing paper, soil erosion and reducing its fertility, reducing production of oxygen and dispose of carbon dioxide, and so forth, producing one ton of paper has several environmental hazards. Thus, wasting paper such as eradication and printing ticket can have irreparable damages for environment while, usage of ticket cards can reduce these damages extremely. [13]

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4.2. Economical evaluation of using e-ticket in fare payment In this section it is going to survey advantages of smart systems use in fare payment from economical point of view. Usage of smart systems in fare payment create some economic advantages such as reducing dwell time, reducing number of labor force, reducing fraud in payment system, and reducing paper use for printing ticket and cash. However, some indirect advantages, including public vehicle emissions reduction because of decreasing travel time, can be considered that determining exact amount of its benefits is difficult. It should be noted that in this section determine the cost of installation, maintenance and operation of the equipment is also important but because of the semi-government administration structure of Tehran's bus network, authors has not been allowed access to these costs. 4.2.1.Reducing dwell time As mentioned in previous sections, using e-ticketing for fare payment in pre-paid method causes saving 2.2 seconds in comparison to cash payment and about in-vehicle payment method using card this saving is equal to 1.7 seconds. [10] Now considering payment percentage using cards which its data is shown in table 3, determining the benefits of reducing dwell time is possible. Table 3. Percentage of card use in Tehran BRT lines [10, 11, 14] Line number Percentage of card use Saving time (second)

Number of transactions (person)

1

70

2.2

159289

2

40

2.2

38062

3

55

2.2

61691

4

43

2.2

49880

5

52

2.2

19971

7

43

1.7

77908

10

35

2.2

28022

Other lines

48

1.7

238536

In order to determining saving time benefits, it is necessary to determine value of time in Tehran. Mirbaha et al. surveys about road network users time value in 2011 show that users time value is equal to 43760 IRR (1.46 $) per hour in that year. [15] In order to use these expenses for the present, it is necessary to pay attention to interest rate related numbers updated. Road network user's time value for present time is equal to 83500 IRR (2.82 $) per hour. Because the fare payment method of BRT lines, except line 7 is pre-paid, so, time saving in this method is assuming 2.2 seconds and in other lines due to hybrid fare payment, saving time is assumed 1.7 seconds. In order to determining saving time benefits, it is necessary to determine expense equivalent saving hour. Thus, using this expense saving amount in bus lines will be equal to 11201 billion IRR (380 million dollar) per year. If all users use this fare payment method, this expense will be equal to 21954 billion IRR (743 million dollar) per year. 4.2.2. Expense of reducing fare evasion Fraud issue in payment system and collecting fare can be surveyed in three types. In bus network, first type is related to passengers that they try not to pay fare, or pay lower cost with copying tickets, or purchasing fake tickets, or other unusual way. In second type, drivers disorder tickets weighting system using external objects in fare collecting bags or redistributing collection tickets from passengers, or collecting cash and avoiding giving them to company in order to create extra incomes for themselves. In third type, fare collection operators in entrance BRT stations act out collecting cash and avoid presentation clear transaction reports to company. Considering these issues, number 1 Tehran BRT line is selected as case study and so after collecting data about passengers' number (manual method) , ticket card transactions, and also extracting automatic passenger counters' data in stations of this BRT line, fraud rate in a typical day is estimated.


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[11] Comparing transaction using ticket card and the number of passengers countered by counter cameras shows that the passengers who don't pay fare (fare evasion - type I) are about 13 percent. (It is mentionable that station operators have to register transactions in system for passenger's cash payments, therefore, it is supposed that all passengers that pay their fare by cash, their payment is registered in system in form of ticket card transaction.) In other hand, comparing the counters data and the countered passengers by statisticians shows that about 21 percent of passengers enter the stations from other station's doors - which this is not probable because of limited entrance space - or in spite of fare payment by cash, operators don't register their payment in system, which this issue is an example of fraud type III. This occurs because the stations are rental and so operators are inclined to don't pay more than predetermined cost to company. As a result, according to fare payment system, frauds will be from type II and III. Thus, the rate of fare evasion in the station is assumed 13%. Assuming average fare equal to 5000 IRR (0.17 $) for this fare evasion rate in Tehran bus network, this issue will have a cost equivalent 270.186 billion IRR for system (9.14 million dollar) [11] 4.2.3. Expense of reducing labor forces As mentioned in previous sections, by using ticket cards, the number of required labor forces for selling and controlling tickets is reduced from 20.93 to 14.03 persons per 100 Km of network length. Considering network length of 5594 Km, Expense of reducing labor forces; if their average monthly income is supposed equal to 10 million IRR (338 $), will be about 46.32 billion IRR (1.5 million dollar) per year. It is mentionable that in this section the weighting and eradication personals in paper ticket system is not considered because of data lacking. [11] 4.2.4. Expense of reducing ticket preparation and printing Different fraud in fare payment system using paper tickets made Tehran's urban bus administration to prepare and print monthly paper tickets. These tickets' distribution and not using them or not selling them in the same month caused the tickets to lose their validity. On the other hand, as a consequence of increasing daily public transportation demand, need for paper tickets also raised. This issue, as mentioned in previous section, caused serious environmental damages. Meanwhile with introduction of private bus companies' payment system into Tehran's bus network, cash payment using paper money has spread again and this method is one of usual payment ways in public transportation these days. Considering great amount of cash in banking system and not spreading electronic payment in public, high level of purchasing goods and services using cash is observable these days which one of them is public transportation fare payment. According to Iran central bank's estimation, high expenses of paper money's annual eradication; which is equal to 120 billion IRR (4 million dollar), are spent for collecting, eradicating, and reprinting more than 700 million paper money sheets every year. [16] In recent years, with that in mind increasing cost of raw material, this expense is also rise more up to 175 billion IRR (5.9 million dollar) in 2011 [16] which considering increase of currency rate, it seems to rise again in coming years. Thus, great part of general taxes; which can be spent for considering subsidies and developing public transportation infrastructure, is used for useless process. Considering daily translocation of 1.5 million persons in Tehran bus network, if all passengers use cash payment and assuming use of one paper money by each passenger for fare, number of annual used paper money in bus network will be about 550 million sheets; which is equivalent to 78 percent of new printed paper money. Reducing cash exchange between passengers and drivers help environment and not spend useless expenses for eradication and reprinting paper moneys, in addition to providing health for passenger through reducing money touch.

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5. Conclusion In order to public transportation development, various suggestions have been presented in recent years such as fleet and route expansion or passengers service development. Changing fare payment method in public bus network decreased dwell time in each station; as one of the most important benefits of E-ticketing is reducing dwell time from 3.7 seconds per passenger in cash payment to 2 seconds per passenger. This reduction will be saved 11201 billion IRR (380 million dollar) per year. If all users use this fare payment method, this reduction will be equal to 21954 billion IRR (743 million dollar) per year. Decreasing dwell time in addition to saving time will cause regulating and reducing bus headways in network. Also using this method is reduced labor force number from 20.93 to 14.03 persons per 100 Km, which cause saving expenses about 46.32 billion IRR (1.5 million dollar) per year. Furthermore, e-ticketing will decrease fare evasion in bus network and provide minimum benefits about 270 billion IRR (9.14 million dollar) for system. Moreover, using smart cards will cause reduction in ticket's distributing and printing cost and so reduction in consuming paper and cutting trees. Other benefits in this area are better management using various pricing policies, sanitary improvement because of not exchanging money between passengers and drivers, and development of social condition as a result of conflict reduction between passengers and drivers. Finally, it is concluded that usage of this payment method in addition to saving more than 11517 billion IRR (390 million dollar) will help policymakers to implement E-ticketing so as to provide better services and transparent data for scheduling and passenger management in the stations. 6. References 1. G.Jakubauskas (2006), Improvement of Urban Passenger Transport Ticketing Systems by Deploying Intelligent Transport Systems, Transport, Vol.21, P.252-259. 2. Multisystems, Inc.; Mundle & Associates, Inc; Simon & Simon Research & Associates, Inc.(2003), TCRP, Report 94: Fare Policies, Structures and Technologies: Update; Transportation Research Board: Washington, D. C. 3. M.H.Hafezi, A.Ismail andAA.Shariff (2012), Comparative analysis of fare collection system on bus operations, Journal of Applied Sciences, No.12. 4. S.Rabban, (2011), Different Payment Methods Impact on Transit Speed and Performance, Transportation Economics. 5. Rodseth, J., and B. Bang., (2006). ITS in Public Transportation. SINTEF Teknologi og samfunn,

STF50 A05223. 6. MMezghani, (2008), Study on Electronic Ticketing in Public Transport, European Metropolitan Transport Authorities. 7. H.M.Zureiqat, (2006), Fare Policy Analysis For Public TransportationA Discrete Continious Modeling Aproach using Panel Data. 8. M.Welde, (2012), Are Smart Card Ticketing Systems Proftable? Evidence from the City of Trondheim, Norwegian University of Science and Technology. 9. Official website of Tehran Municipality: www.Tehran.ir 10. H.Alenoori, NAmirpashaei, B.Mirbaha, (Under Review) Effect of fare payment type on Dwell time, Public transport journal. 11. Tarahan Parseh Research Institute, (2013) Feasibility Studies of E-Ticketing in Public Transportation, Vol No.3, Tehran Traffic Control Company 12. Vukan R.Vuchic.,(2007), Urban Transit System and Technology. 13. Frzadkya, Dalvand, sanctification, (2008), Evaluate the economic and environmental aspects of recycling paper and cardboard from Isfahan municipal solid waste, University of Medical Sciences Journal, Issue 3, Volume10. 14. Tehran Urban Planning and Research Centre (2011), Assessment of Tehran BRT lines with international standard. 15 B.Mirbaha , M. Saffarzadeh .S.E.SeyedAbrishami, S. sherafatipour,(2003), Users values of time estimation in congestion priced in urban streets, Volume 4, Issue 3, Spring 2013, Page 275-292 16. Official website of Central Bank: www.CBI.ir