Citizens across Barcelona can now use contactless cards, NFC phones and devices such as smartwatches to access the city’s transportation network as well as rent a bicycle at the train station or pay motorway tolls.

“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,” says Infineon, which supplies the security chips and Cipurse-compliant validators for the smart cards.

“In addition, T-Mobilitat will also enable a user to rent a bicycle at the train station or pay at toll barriers on motorways. All limited use paper tickets such as the popular T-10 ticket package will also be replaced by more convenient chip-based solutions. In the long run, Catalonia’s entire mobility will be powered by chip technology.”

“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,” the company adds. “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.”

Future-proof system

“Smart transportation infrastructure is key for sustainable urban development,” says Josep Anton Grau i Reinés, ATM’s CEO. “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.”

“A single contactless solution for transportation, payment and other applications is convenient and a great advantage — not only during rush hour,” adds Thomas Rosteck, VP and general manager at the chip card and security division of Infineon.

“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 buses.”