On 5. February 2025, EPF and STA – Smart Ticketing Alliance – organised a joint workshop for EPF and STA members, on the topic of National Digital Ticketing schemes.

“Digital Ticketing” in public transport is being organised in more and more countries at national level and offered to passengers as an integrated system. In countries where this is not yet the case, intensive debates are taking place to also offer seamless interoperable ticketing.

That is why the Smart Ticketing Alliance has set up a series of stakeholder dialogues on National Digital Ticketing, involving the public transport sector itself, the ticketing industry, but also key stakeholders who have an influence on the public transport sector, like EPF and its members.

Within this context, and following the Memorandum of Understanding signed between EPF and STA last year, the session included the following presentations:

  • Delphine Grandsart (EPF) introduced EPF and its key priorities for EU action, zooming in on the state of play in terms of integrated ticketing – local-regional-national public transport versus long-distance, cross-border travel. She also referred to EPF’s involvement in EU-Rail R&I and in the SESAR-funded SIGN-AIR project, working on technical enablers to facilitate integrated ticketing.
  • Jorge Morera (EPF MB & PTP, Spain) presented different examples of integrated ticketing applied in Madrid, Vizcaya, Barcelona, as well as nationwide trip planning and booking platforms in Spain (Renfe, Iryo). Jorge also referred to the potential impact of the new Sustainable Mobility Law and recent announcements to start establishing a nationwide PT ticket.
  • Freek Bos (EPF MB & Rover, Netherlands) talked about the introduction of OV Pay in the Netherlands, which will gradually replace the older OV Chipcard system, and pointed out some issues in terms of its practical implementation, e.g. lack of a single check-in and check-out, different rules for regional & national travel (e.g. on peak hours) and subscription clashes, amongst others.
  • Katharina Krell (EPF MB & ProBahn, Germany) presented the Deutschlandticket. While this initiative can be considered a success story with 13 mio subscribers, there are also some challenges, e.g. capacity issues (with no solution in sight), impact on PTO revenues, complex rules on e.g. bikes, dogs, cancellations, and appearance of new, previously unknown ‘fare evasion’ situations.

The presentation can be downloaded here.