The Expresspay card for optimized access to China Railway trains

The challenge: responding to high demand for ticket printing in a short period of time

 

To respond to the considerable increase in passenger numbers over the last few years, and during holiday periods, China Railway wanted to create a low-cost train ticket printing system.

In partnership with the Bank of China and China Unionpay, a new company was created to develop the Expresspay card, a pre-paid card including payment features.

The solution: Zenius and Pebble 4, Evolis solutions for personalized card printing

After consultation with various providers, the Zenius and Pebble 4 card printers were chosen, as they met several requirements:

 

• Encoding that connects the magnetic strip and the contact or contactless chip;
• Speed of card printing;
• Easy integration and compatibility with different operating systems.

The Expresspay card was then created, containing personal information about the holders (name, photograph, ID card number) and compliant with China Railway requirements.

 "This card means tickets can be purchased in various different ways, such as at ticket offices in stations, at ticket vending machines and on the China Railway customer service website" said Mr. Que, Project Manager for China Railway Expresspay Co. Ltd.

The result: pre-paid cards for passengers

The introduction of cards allowed railway staff to manage the rising number of passengers more effectively, particularly during holiday periods. This new card offers various benefits for

 

the users as well as for China Railway:

For travelers:

• Reduced waiting time to obtain tickets
• A very practical and user-friendly card for all distribution channels (ticket offices, vending machines, and website).

For China Railway:

• Super-fast printing of transport tickets;
• Professional print quality;
• The dual function of the card as a payment method for tickets and access control to pass through the station barriers. 

"The Zenius and Pebble 4 printers met our requirements for printing high-definition photographs (...) Evolis provided us with an enhanced software development kit (SDK) which allowed us to adapt the software, and to optimize and reduce the workload of our users", Mr. Que explained.