SEOUL, KOREA - “I carried this transportation card with me on my business trips to Bu-san and Singapore.”
A transportation card that offers a one-stop solution to every form of transportation needs, from local buses, long distance buses, and taxis to Korea Train eXpress (KTX, Korea's high-speed rail system), coffee, and even transportation services in other nations will soon become available. This system is called the “One Card Multi-Product”, which is currently under development by Korea Smart Card CO. (KSCC, www.koreasmartcard.co.kr). Let’s look into Mr. K’s daily life to see how this versatile card works.
How Mr. K uses this card in his daily life
Every morning, salary man Mr. K checks whether his card is in his wallet before he leaves home. This card is called the T-money transportation card. Since Mr. K has to commute from Su-won to the Gang-nam area in Seoul every day, this T-money card comes in very handy. Since the T-money card has consolidated the functions of various cards including credit cards and simple public transportation cards, carrying this card has made his wallet much lighter. Mr. K can pay the bus, subway, and taxi fares with this card in a convenient fashion.
These days, transportation transfer tickets such as commutation tickets can be loaded onto this T-money card. Today, Mr. K finds the cheapest commutation ticket, which enables him to transfer from Su-won to Yang-jae Station, on the T-money Online Shopping Mall and purchases it right away.
Mr. K is also offered coffee shop discount vouchers with his commutation ticket purchase. Once the commutation ticket is loaded into the T-money card at a nearby convenient store, the job is done. Now Mr. K can commute in a smarter and more economical manner.
Before he heads for his office, he drops by a coffee shop near his workplace. He orders an Americano and delightedly uses a discount voucher in his card. Books on sale at online bookstores can also be purchased with the T-money card. This multi-purpose card can be employed in lieu of cash or credit cards for small transactions, both online and offline. From now on, individuals who possess this card can smoothly hop on and off buses, shop and eat anywhere, and even watch movies and play games.
Mr. K also carries this card with him on his business trips to other regions. In particular, this card comes in handy for business trips where he travels by train. In the past, each city had its own public transportation card system, but now, the T-money card allows passengers to go anywhere in any city and buy whatever they want.
The T-Money card can be used nationwide
Regardless of the modes of transportation and regions, the “One Card Multi-Product” system will be put in place to boost user convenience. Just like Mr. K does, people on business trips to other regions will be able to use their T-money cards in different areas within the foreseeable future. The T-money card, which is currently available in the Seoul metropolitan areas and certain regions, is set to go nationwide. In addition, custom-made commutation ticket products will be revitalized to allow consumers to load services of their choice onto their T-money cards.
As of now, only one transportation payment plan, such as a prepaid ticket, a post-paid ticket and a commutation ticket, can be loaded onto transportation cards. In other words, the use of transportation cards has been bounded by different terms and conditions set by regional transportation card operators. Thus, when people transfer to other modes of transportation or travel to other regions, they have to resort to using several different cards. However, the “One Card Multi Product” system, which is being developed by the KSCC, will eliminate this hassle.
Under the “One Card Multi Product” system, the T-money card can be loaded with any prepaid, post-paid tickets, and commutation tickets for any kind of transportation nationwide. Having been selected as one of the WBS (World Best Software) project in October 2010, the “One Card Multi Product” system is related to a KRW 7.3 billion project in which the standard software for the AFC (Automatic Fare Collection) system has been jointly developed by the KSCC, Solacia, Atec, LGCNS, Coregate, Tmonet, Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI), and Seoul National University R&DB Foundation. Testing of this system was initiated in October of this year, and a trial run of the system will be conducted after March when the WBS tasks are scheduled to be finalized.
Under the AFC system, commuters lightly tap their transportation cards against readers to pay their fares. What is important here is “standardization.” The aforementioned companies are working on the standards for the AFC system. In other words, the standards for AFC are being prepared to create a card that can be used nationwide. System operators also can benefit from this. Without making drastic adjustments to their systems whenever new payment plans are drawn up, they can simply put new payment policies into their system. Furthermore, train rides also can be taken care of with this card. It may sound simple and easy, but the implementation of this labor-saving service will be an epoch-making event in the world’s transportation card history.
Byung-geun Jang, the head of the WBS Team at the KSCC said, “Simply put, just like we download mobile cards onto our smartphones, a variety of products can be downloaded onto our transportation cards. Since this new system allows the user to choose their services, it is an improvement on the existing AFC system.” Though this system is confined to Korea for now, it is expected to go global in the near future. If so, Korean travelers will be able to use their T-money cards in Singapore. In partnership with Singapore’s leading smart card company EZ-Link, the KSCC has been building a mobile interoperability system in Singapore, as part of the development of the GLOPAS system, a standard technology implemented by EACOPS (East Asia Common Payment Scheme).
The History of Korea’s T-money
As of now, transportation cards are swiped an average of 50 million times a day in the Seoul metropolitan areas. For Seoul citizens, getting on and off buses, subways and taxis with a single card is nothing new. Yet, the introduction of such a smart card transportation system dates back only less than nine years.
Back in 2004, the Seoul City government and the KSCC unveiled the T-money transportation service that combined the advantages of cutting-edge radio frequencies and electronic payment systems and now takes credit for the upgrades in the mass transit system in Seoul. Since then, the T-money card, an amalgam of IT and mass transit, has been heavily exploited.
Upon the completion of the WBS tasks, the KSCC will vigorously move forward with the commercialization of the One Card Multi Product system. As the KSCC’s technological prowess and operational expertise has been internationally acknowledged, the KSCC is now busy working on overseas marketing activities to enter new markets. The KSCC exported its transportation card system to Wellington (the capital city of New Zealand) and Auckland in 2008 and to Kuala Lumpur (the federal capital of Malaysia) in 2011. Also, in 2011, as LGCNS won a USD 300 million ITS contract from Bogota (the capital city of Colombia), the KSCC supplied transportation cards, equipment, and system and management software.
