Are Barcodes Dead ?

With more transit authorities moving to closed and/or open-loop payment systems to allow passengers to pay for journies on public transport, people are surprised to still see barcodes/QR codes in use in these systems.

What is a Barcode

A barcode is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. The first barcode appeared in the US in the early 1950s, however, their wider use didn’t happen for another 20 years when they started to appear on supermarket goods, initially for store inventory, but soon for price scanning at checkouts.
These early barcodes were 1 dimension and were limited to 6-12 numeric digits, but through advances in optical read technology, they quickly grew to hold up to 48 characters. When 2D dimensional barcodes (QR Codes) were introduced in the mid-1990s the capacity of data stored in a bar code increased exponentially and they can now hold thousands of alpha-numerical characters.

Bar Codes in transit

Because of the large amount of data that can be stored in a 2d barcode, they are the perfect vehicle to store ticketing information. this may include date purchased, route covered, ticket type, even ownership details which are important for expensive tickets such as seasonal passes.
But probably the main benefit of the barcodes is it ability to be distributed easily. These barcodes can be printed at ticket offices, downloaded and printed at home or sent instantly to a mobile phone.

Speed

Advances in optical scanning technology mean that scanning barcodes is fast. Typical 2d barcodes can be reliably scanned in 300-500ms. This is the same rate that NFC cards operate in. They generally will not mean a slower operation if used in high volume gates situations such as railway stations.

Future of barcodes

There is still limitation with mobile-based NFC, requiring further support and capability to be provided in the mobile handset by mobile phone manufacturers, on the other hand, making barcodes available on the mobile phone through either an App or stored in the phones wallet is a simple process and can be done on all modern smartphones.
Barcodes aren’t leaving transit ticketing systems any time soon. while contactless system use will continue to rise, this will generally be focused on the pay as you go (PAYG), ticketing model. Barcodes will allow a patron to purchase ticket products such as seasonal passes, travel and entertainment packages.