By Tom Phillips

Passengers travelling on rail, bus, tram and subway services across the whole of Austria can now make contactless end-to-end fare payments for single or multi-modal journeys with two swipes on their smartphone screen using a ticketing function added to the Austrian Federal Railways ÖBB Tickets app.

Once activated by a public transport user at the start of their journey, the SimplyGo! function uses GPS to track the routes and distance travelled, then automatically calculates and charges the user the cheapest fare after they have swiped their smartphone to indicate they have reached their final destination.

The SimplyGo! function supports payments for journeys on ÖBB local and long-distance trains, ÖBB buses, trains run by selected regional companies and “all regional bus and city transport companies that accept transport association tickets”.

It also incorporates fare capping to ensure that a user making multiple journeys on a single day does not pay more than the price of the corresponding day ticket.

The solution uses a check-in and check-out system developed by Swiss technology provider Fairtiq and the national rollout in Austria follows a previous limited implementation of the technology in parts of the country.

Denmark began trialling a hands-free contactless mobile transport ticketing platform using Fairtiq’s technology in September 2022.