RFID Tickets Find Place in Chinese Railway System

Filed in archive Implementation on September 5, 2006

Let's check some facts. The railway system in China carries around three billion passengers every year and is dependant on single trip tickets. But not now, Guangshen Railway Company has emerged as the first operator in the country to move over from traditional barcode tickets to contactless only fare collection solution. In order to control ticket frauds and at the same time improve passenger convenience it is making use of Confidex' contactless tickets. The RFID inlays in the tickets would be factory encoded with an encrypted number that would be read by train personnel using authorized handheld interrogators.

The tickets provided by Confidex would be paper based and would contain MIFARE UL chip. A five year contract has been signed under which Confidex would be providing 125 million RFID tickets which would be made available from the month of October.

It's a good way of reducing losses for the railways caused by fake or ticketless travel. This technology could also be implemented by China's neighbor, India which also has one of the largest rail networks in the world and faces a lot of passenger problems. If this works out well in China a good example could be set for other rail networks in the world.