Account-Based Ticketing State of the Art Report

Account-based ticketing (ABT) is a subject of wide interest. It is used and is being considered for use by many transport operators and authorities across the world. The system supplier market is international. There may be benefits to transport operators and authorities from some element of international standardization. There may also be benefits from some overall international coordination, for example, with regard to reference data.

ABT is a method of ticketing where the proof of entitlement to travel and any records of travel are held in an ABT back office and not in any physical media held by the passenger. ABT is also known as server-based ticketing or Security in System. ABT can operate in both an online and offline world using risk-managed revenue protection techniques as appropriate.

ABT is widely used for long-distance ticketing such as coach, rail and airlines and there are field deployments of ABT systems in urban ticketing associated, for example, with usage-based best-value tariffs. Although an account is always technically required, entirely anonymous travel is possible and accounts do not need to persist after travel, save for fiscal reasons.