Experiment “TreiZEN” – mobile phones used for transit ticketing

Marseilles, July 9th, 2007 – County of the Bouches-du-Rhône and the cities of Aubagne and Etoile have jointly launched innovative service experimentation for the travelers of public transportation under the name “TreiZEN”. With “TreiZEN”, commuters can use their mobile phones for transit ticketing. Veolia Transport, which currently operates the shuttle bus route of Aubagne - Marseilles and the Aubagne network and Venyon, supplier of NFC (Near Field Communication) Over-the-Air service have initiated TreiZEN. Also AFC system integrator ERG Transit Systems as supplier of the ticketing system, and Crandy as provider of the integrated mobile payment system for the ticketing, have equally contributed to the TreiZEN project.

In the TreiZEN project, travelers buy transport tickets with their mobile phone and after the ticket download, they can use the phone as a transit ticket. When entering the bus trial users simply need to tap their mobile phone with a validation terminal, which accept mobile phones as tickets. The purchase of the transport ticket is carried out using OTA (Over-The- Air) technology, which enables secure, time and place independent purchase transactions. This means that the phone becomes a ticket vending machine and new form-factor of the transport ticket at the same time.

The experimentation covers the shuttle bus route of Aubagne-Marseilles of the Cartreize network as well as all the buses in the Aubagne network for the duration of six months. The test-users (approximately 150) will receive a Nokia NFC mobile phone and they will use their own mobile subscription with data transfer.

The TreiZEN project of mobile NFC ticketing brings innovative and new features for trial use: Now you can reload and pay for you transport ticket with your mobile phone anywhere and anytime. All the transactions are available Over-The-Air without a need to visit a ticket counter or vending machine. Another important benefit of the TreiZEN experiment is that participants can be customers to any mobile telecom operator and still use the same service.

The ticketing scheme provided by the General Council of the Bouches-du-Rhone is the most advanced, truly compatible and interoperable contactless ticketing scheme in France and thus enables the best available trial environment for mobile ticketing. The travelers can reload transport tickets with their mobile phone both in the bus network of Cartreize as well as in the bus network of Aubagne.

Partners and contributors of the experiment are The General Council of the Bouches-du- Rhône, cities of Aubagne and Etoile, Veolia Transport, Venyon, Crandy and ERG.

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