Abstract: In the daily operation of the public transport system, the movement of buses is uncertain because of conditions such as traffic congestion, unexpected delays, irregular vehicle dispatching times, and other incidents. Such uncertainty results in passengers having to wait for their bus to arrive at the bus stop. This paper proposes a new system based on RFID, in which each commuter owns a smartcard fitted with an RFID tag having a unique ID. This card is scanned by the RFID reader at the entrance and again at the exit, and the fare corresponding to the distance travelled is deducted from the commuter’s account. The system uses Google’s General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS), making it adaptable to any transit system for which a GTFS feed is available. In addition, the commuters can track the position of their desired bus in real time through an Android app, and get an occupancy estimate of the bus. The proposed system aims to increase customer convenience and eventually eliminate the use of paper tickets in transit systems.

Keywords: RFID, Ticket issuing, Android, GTFS, Raspberry Pi.