Proposing a Real-Time Ticket Monitoring System for Public Transport in NSW, Australia

Abstract

The public transport system of New South Wales (NSW), Australia is impotent to receive 100% of the fare from light rail and buses due to the unavailability of a continuous real-time monitoring system. This scheme thereby seeks to help update the NSW public transport ticket collection system, with the aid of a counter that will be integrated into the public transportation within the Ticket Tapping Machine, to provide passenger count against the number of touches occurring at each stop; and thus, increasing the revenue. The product comprises of hardware and software components - the hardware system is located within the public transport while the software system incorporating a web portal is positioned for the authorities to have access to the real-time passenger data. At the hardware end, the ultrasonic sensors and the raspberry pi would detect the number of passengers on the transport and the LCD screen would display the number of passengers who had not tapped their smart card ticket. Additionally, the raspberry pi module used in the hardware component can denote the transportation location with the help of an in-built Wi-Fi component. With this designed technology, the authorities would be able to monitor and record the movements of the passenger in real-time system addressing the existing challenges faced by the NSW public transport authority, especially in the case of light rail and buses being used for free by certain passengers.