Security chips enable smart public transport in Barcelona

The approximately 5m inhabitants of Barcelona and its surroundings will benefit in several ways: The “T-Mobilitat” smart card will provide all-in-one access to the city’s transport network including Barcelona’s metro system, bus or any other transportation means. All limited use paper tickets such as the popular T-10 ticket package will also be replaced by more convenient chip-based solutions. In addition, “T-Mobilitat” will also enable a user to rent a bicycle at the train station or pay at toll barriers on motorways. In the long run, Catalonia’s entire mobility will be powered by chip technology.

“The mobility solution in Barcelona shows how modern security technology from Infineon improves the daily lives of people in metropolitan areas," said Thomas Rosteck, Vice President and General Manager, Chip Card & Security Division, Infineon Technologies. "A single contactless solution for transportation, payment and other applications is convenient and a great advantage - not only during rush hour. Our chips transmit data to the reader so quickly and securely that passengers don’t even need to take the ticket out of their purse or pocket when passing turnstiles or accessing busses”.

The metropolitan transportation authority ATM (Autoritat del Transport Metropolità) will start switching the electronic ticketing system of the metropolitan region of Barcelona from magnetic stripe cards to chip-based tickets in 2016. In the second phase, the system will also be rolled out into the region of Catalonia. The "T-Mobilitat" ticket is issued as a transport app or an all-in-one ticket in the form of a smart card. Here, user data is stored on the Infineon CIPURSE Security Controller. With this product, Infineon is the first certified supplier to ATM for the “T-Mobilitat” project.

"Smart transportation infrastructure is key for sustainable urban development," explains Josep Anton Grau i Reinés, CEO, ATM. "With the ‘T-Mobilitat’ project based on the CIPURSE security standard we implement a very flexible, cost-efficient and particularly future-proof system. It allows us to offer multiple applications on various contactless devices including smart cards and mobile phones. This will increase passengers’ convenience and make public transportation more attractive”.

The decision by the ATM in Barcelona marks an important milestone in the global launch of the CIPURSE security standard of the OSPT Alliance. CIPURSE can work alongside existing individual solutions so there is the possibility of modernizing entire systems seamlessly and gradually. Another advantage is that the security standard is also designed for mobile devices such as NFC-enabled cellular phones or smart watches.