Tuesday, October 24, 2006
JR east launches its suica system in Tokyo - Contactless Smart Cards
JR East, Japan, has launched its new Suica contactless smart card ticketing system, based on an integrated management package developed by Hitachi, Japan. Suica has been installed initially in the Tokyo region at a cost of about $US 400 million.
THE first phase of JR East's Super Urban Intelligent Card (Suica) system covers 424 JR East stations within a 100km radius of Tokyo, and it has involved installing 3100 gates and 1000 ticket machines. Four million Suica season ticket passes are being issued, plus up to a million stored fare cards, and these are expected to generate more than 16 million transactions per day.
Suica was launched throughout the Tokyo regional network on November 18 2001, following a successful three month trial which covered 27 stations on the Saikyo lines, including a section of the Yamanote line which forms a ring route around the city. The trials convinced JR East that it could adopt the so-called "big bang" approach to introduce the contactless smart card ticketing system immediately. Smart cards are being issued either on application or as existing season tickets become due for renewal.
New or upgraded equipment installed at stations includes gates, ticket vending machines, and fare adjustment machines. Many stations already had gates, which have been modified to enable use with smart cards rather than magnetic stripe technology.
It is expected that Suica will be extended later to other stations, as well as to sales kiosks and retail stores. JR East is also discussing the possibility of making it available to other railway and bus companies in the Tokyo region in the future.
Most cards hold both a season ticket pass and a stored fare value that can be spent on irregular journeys. When a passenger's journey ends outside the area covered by the pass, an automatic fare adjustment is made. The card's stored value is used to automatically "top up" the season ticket, rather than forcing the passenger to visit a fare adjustment machine before exiting. There are also simple stored fare-only cards available.
Suica, which means water lemon in Japanese, is intended to reduce costs, increase profitability, and provide a better service for passengers.
Cost reductions will be achieved by installing cheaper smart card-operated station gates to replace magnetic stripe ticket-operated gates that had reached the end of their natural service life. This was one of the key factors behind the swift introduction of the new system.
Fewer ticket vending and fare adjustment machines are needed than before, while general maintenance costs for smart card equipment are lower, primarily due to fewer moving mechanical parts. While fraud is not regarded as a major problem in Japan, control over fares collection is greatly improved. In addition, float income will be generated by the loading of stored fare value onto cards.
A faster, improved service for customers is being delivered not only through automatic fare adjustment but also the need for less frequent ticket purchases. Entering and leaving stations is much easier as Suica cards can be scanned at the gates without being removed from wallets or purses. If they are lost, Suica season passes, including any remaining stored value, can be easily reissued. As a result of increased automation, JR East staff have now been re-deployed into roles where they deal directly with the public.
Ultimately, the issue of Suica smart cards will provide a platform for new business opportunities. As well as extending their use to other rail and transport modes, JR East plans to merge its existing View credit card with Suica, allow the use of Suica cards in kiosks and shops, and rent out card memory space to other companies for different applications.
A flexible central management system is required, therefore, to manage and monitor all the records of smart card usage gleaned from a diverse range of equipment.
This is being supplied by Hitachi in the form of its e-ticketing and fare collection smart card management system (SCMS) package.
Hitachi's information systems and electronics division, whose role includes the development and sale of smart cards and e-ticketing systems, has a much lower public profile than its power and industrial systems division, whose responsibility includes the manufacture of rolling stock. However, the former accounts for 32% of the group's revenue, compared with 24% for the latter.
Hitachi is a leading semiconductor and chip manufacturer, including those for smart cards. It sold 100 million chips in Europe during 2000, though this particular market is declining at the moment.
The new SCMS package provides comprehensive and integrated management of large and complex smart card-based ticketing systems. It detects fraud in many ways, and manages any illicit, lost or stolen cards. Customer and card usage data is, of course, available for planning or other business uses.
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