Data collection from fare validation

Where an urban passenger transport system incorporates transfer payments, whether between operators (for transfers), from contractor to operator (for service contracts), or from subsidy provider to operator, then there need to be appropriate systems in place to identify and verify the scale of the transfers that arise.

It is also normal, within a regulated environment, for operators to be required to provide some level of travel demand data to their regulator or contracting authority for the purposes of network planning. The usefulness of this data will depend, to some extent, on the nature of the fare collection and travel validation systems and, in particular, whether this can identify the end of a trip as well as its start. Where the latter is not the case, electronic fare collection systems may detect trip destinations from the subsequent or return trip origins of passengers.