Stockholm Public Transport´S Text-SMS Ticketing System With Developments Towards Machine Validation

Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (SL) faced in 2007 a stop in cash handling onboard buses in the Stockholm County and was forced to take necessary measures to replace cash sales on 2100 buses. The solution chosen was to implement a new single ticket structure, to install some 300 vending machines for single ticket sales in “near to traffic” places such as bus stops, to establish a further 300 ticket agents and to introduce pure text-SMS tickets. The SMS ticket was the most important measure without which the task of offering ticket services to almost everybody had not been possible to accomplish in such a short time. The cease of cash handling did not affect sales or passengers’ access to transportation and the customer satisfaction was high. In spite of the SMS-ticket success the service needs to be further developed in order to take care of fraud and to facilitate bus drivers’ and gate personnel’s work. The solution to this is making the ticket machine readable, which SL is currently working on.