Fare Management System in Public Transport : an analysis of actors and roles

An Interoperable Fare Management system for public transport has been a struggle for the actors in industry of public transport. A lot of effort has been put into creating a smart card solution that enables the travellers to use the same card for paying and holding the ticket regardless geographical position in Sweden. That project has failed, mostly due to a lack of taking non-technical actors and aspects into consideration during the project process. This thesis highlights the major actors and their responsibilities. The ARKTRANS framework is used as analytical tool to identify different roles. Throughout the thesis a sociotechnical perspective is used. The developed method in this thesis is suitable for mapping of actors and responsibilities in a network surrounding a complex technical system. The method is especially suitable for analysing the on-going project in middle Sweden developing and implementing a new fare management system for public transport. The study has identified a lack of actors in the role as Fare Management Interoperability Provider. This absence is particularly interesting since the a collaboration in southern Sweden, which has a Fare Management Interoperability Provider, has succeeded in the struggle towards interoperability.