A fresh approach to transportation ticketing aims to establish an integrated and transparent system that operates efficiently for both ticket providers and passengers across all modes of transportation.

Figure 1. Illustration Image.

Figure 1 is an illustration image. Conventional ticketing systems face challenges such as limited transferability across multi-modal transport networks and an inability to adapt to policy changes and new technologies.

Experts from the University of Birmingham have introduced a system outlined in a recent paper published in IET Blockchain called STUB (System for Ticketing Ubiquity within Blockchains), which combines blockchain and ontology technologies [1].

Blockchain serves as a distributed ledger ensuring secure, transparent, and immutable transaction records, while ontology provides a formal representation of knowledge and relationships within a domain, facilitating the modeling and management of complex information systems.

By merging these technologies, the researchers demonstrate the creation of a robust, transparent, and interconnected data framework, ensuring consistent and reliable shared knowledge.

Using these data structures, ticket providers can sell and validate tokenized tickets on the blockchain, ensuring universal accessibility across all providers. The incorporation of ontology enables providers to capture and share contextual information about the transport network, streamlining the ticketing process by offering comprehensive data about routes, schedules, and availability [2].

Lead author Dr. Joe Preece explains, "Transport systems worldwide are increasingly interconnected, and smarter transport ticketing is essential to overcome the limitations of traditional systems using emerging technologies."

He adds, "STUB's approach is not to be a single central data platform but a policy-agnostic one that empowers existing ticket providers and technologies to share core ticketing data and build new solutions on top of it."

The team's next step is to implement a pilot scheme for the technology in a regional transport network to demonstrate its effectiveness and gather feedback from ticket operators and passengers.

"Integrating with existing ticketing infrastructure while scaling up the technology will be a significant challenge," notes Dr. Preece. "Successfully setting up a pilot will be crucial to overcoming these barriers."

Source: University of Birmingham

References:

1. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/05/240510111420.htm
2. https://indiaeducationdiary.in/university-of-birmingham-explores-blockchain-as-solution-for-uks-transport-ticketing-systems/

Cite this article:

Hana M (2024), Exploring Blockchain's Potential for Transforming the UK's Transport Ticketing Systems, AnaTechmaz, pp. 306