The 1Bilhete.pt project, whose investment will be around 2,7 million euros, will allow, in its first phase, to create a single card for traveling on public transport in the country, announced the Secretary of State for Urban Mobility Jorge Delgado.
“1Bilhete.pt is the appealing name we found to call this project and the first step we are taking is in terms of physical support. It really is to solve the problem of being able to have only one type of support to travel anywhere in the country, be it a card, be it an application, a mobile phone, or even the use of a bank card”, he explained.
The 1Bilhete.pt project, which aims to create a nationwide intermodal ticketing platform, kicked off yesterday in the city of Coimbra, at a ceremony where the protocol that sustains it was signed, between the Mobility Institute and Transport (IMT), Lisbon Metropolitan Transport – TML and Porto Intermodal Transport – TIP.
According to the official, it was a fundamental step, which, although seeming elementary, had not yet been taken and which is essential to make the tariffs of the different regions compatible, since “each region has its own tariff, each region has their support” and “do not communicate”.
“As of today, we are able to assume, among all of us, that we are going to work so that the platform's work base is strictly the same and that we have no excuse for not developing integrated tariff products, because the platforms do not work or because they are not compatible. . Having done this, it always depends on the policies we want to develop with your tariff”, he justified.
During the ceremony, the chairman of the board of directors of the Mobility and Transport Institute (IMT), João Jesus Caetano, informed that the project will allow interoperability between the systems of the two metropolitan areas of the country.
For this, “the necessary technological conditions will be created to integrate the classic ticketing systems of Porto and Lisbon, namely from the training of their sales and loading equipment, and validation and inspection, to allow interoperability between the Navegante card and the Andante card”.
With regard to mobile ticketing on smartphones, he underlined that they will train transport authorities to develop mobile ticketing applications, in which the smartphone supports travel tickets.
“This functionality will also include the ability to top up physical travel ticket cards from the different national transport networks, with the smartphone functioning as a point of sale and charging. This second development is expected to be completed in the first half of 2024”, he said.
With regard to open ticketing on credit and debit bank cards, he indicated that, in the second half of 2024, “a reference architecture will be defined and approved in order to allow public procurement by the various regions of the country of solutions of this type” .
Already in the opening session of the event, the mayor of Coimbra, José Manuel Silva, considered that the project will revolutionize the way people relate to public transport, as well as facilitate accessibility throughout the national territory with a card single.
The Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Frederico Francisco, who was at the opening of the ceremony, also stressed that this platform “arrives at a good time”, although he pointed out that, as a user of public transport, “arrives very late”.
The 1Bilhete.pt platform is a nationwide project that consists of creating an intermodal ticketing technology platform, allowing interoperability between existing systems, as well as the introduction of new ticketing systems.
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