Metro and bus tickets with credit card: Turin likes the contactless EMV solution by AEP Ticketing solutions

The numbers are on the side of bank cards with 400,000 tickets in nine months

In the last nine months, 400,000 single tickets have been purchased in Turin, in contactless EMV mode, i.e. with bank cards used directly on board the bus and in the Metro, using the system provided by Aep Ticketing Solutions. The number of people who have relied on this new payment method is constantly growing: despite Covid-19 and the consequent decrease in passengers, today 7% of purchases are made with contactless mode. The result is due to the simplicity and speed of use of the contactless EMV service, the possibility of avoiding queuing at the ticket office together with the guaranteed security in the transaction. The numbers were presented by AEP Ticketing solutions, leader in electronic ticketing, as part of the “Next Generation Mobility” event.

The contactless EMV system has been active from 10 July to today on Metro and five GTT surface lines and accepts bank cards from the MasterCard, Visa and American Express circuits. The purchase is also possible via virtualized card on a smartphone or smartwatch device.

The payment card is simple and available for customer, the card is brought up to the validator who immediately confirms the operation and, on the subway, unlocks the access gate. The charge is made directly to the current account on which the card used is placed and the customer has the possibility through a dedicated website to check the status of the trips made (gtt.easyticketing.it/cards). Checks by GTT customer assistants take place in respect of privacy: the passenger is required to communicate only the last 4 digits of the card to allow confirmation of the payment via the terminal provided to the staff.

«Turin is an example of smart mobility, aligned with European standards. Its citizens are becoming more and more accustomed to the use of innovative payment instruments – comments Giovanni Becattini, CEO of AEP Ticketing solutions -. These tools have among the objectives a better usability of the public transport service and a greater efficiency of the Company. With over 7,000 on-board equipment and 2,000 outlets, Gtt’s is one of the largest and most important systems for AEP, so much so that it has required the development of adequate tools for remote supervision and management ».

But the news does not end here. “We have filed a patent application for a new type of radio-optical validation called Optius, based on the combined use of the optical reading of a dynamically variable QR-code and Bluetooth LE (Android and iOS). This novelty – concludes Becattini – will be tested with GTT in Turin ».