The ticketing solution proposed for Hyderabad Metro Rail is a state of the art Automated Fare Collection System based on Contactless Fare Media Technology.
The fare collection system divides the Metro Stations in two areas namely 'paid' and 'un-paid' areas. The paid and unpaid areas are separated by automatic entry / exit gates and fencing. It ensures only person having valid ticket enters the system. The system is designed as a closed one with ticket checking at entry and exit, hence ensuring 100% ticket check in the system.
The proposed system comprises of following key sub-systems:
The tickets are of two types: Contactless Smart Card (CSC) and Contactless Smart Token (CST).Contactless Tokens are pre-paid fare media for journey between fixed set of stations. Token can be purchased for single trip or return trip and are more suitable fare media option for non-frequent users.
Contactless Smart Cards are stored value cards and are available in the form of either monetary (e-Purse) or non-monetary (Pass) or combination of both with various options to attract the regular and frequent users.Money Value equal to fare between any two stations is deducted from the stored value at the exit Gate.
The fare media either can be procured from the Ticket Offices or Ticket Vending Machines. Patron then proceeds to automatic Entry Gate Arrays andpresent the fare media to the contactless reader writer located on Automatic Gate. If the authentication is valid the gate will permit the patron pass through the gate to enterfrom unpaid area to paid area, else gates will restrict the entry.
In case of exit,patron using the contactless token will deposit his/her token at Exit Gate and passenger using a contactless smart card will present the card to contactless reader writer on the Automatic Gate. If all the conditions for a proper exit are met, flaps of the Automatic Gate will be opened to allow access to the passenger.