Page 197 - 捷運技術 第35期

捷運技術半年刊 第 35 期 95 年 8 月 189

When new technology meets political goals

In 1994, with the rapid development of Taipei, a White Paper for Transport Policies expressed
the strong objective to “create a civilised transport system for Taipei people”.
Among the guidelines that directed the actions to be taken were:
a humanistic transportation environment with people as first priority, cars as secondary,
a computerised transportation service and an integrated transportation system of high
efficiency,
a fair traffic environment and implementation of user fees.

These guidelines led the Taipei City Government to set up in 1996 an Evaluation Committee to
assess the application of a Contactless Smart Card（CSC）ticketing system and to decide, after a
feasibility study driven by the Industrial Technology Research Institute, to invest in an ambitious
integrated contactless smart card system with the political objective to provide “one card for all”,
including the payment of parking lots in connection with the public transport network: the IC Card
system.

A bidding process was launched in 1999 and the consortium that we built with our partner
Mitac was awarded the contract in February 2000. The card technology to be used was the most
widely used worldwide: the Mifare 1 card. But Taipei pioneered the use of diversified keys to
improve the security of that memory card, and was actually the first one worldwide, and Thales
CGA was the first system supplier to provide that technology.

New venture

In March 2000, Taipei Smart Card Corporation（TSCC）was established to set up and operate
the CSC integration system. TSCC invested to set up back-end and front-end systems for service
providers, banks and retail shops, being in charge of operation, repairs and maintenance,
coordination, etc...

The brand name chosen for the IC
card project was EasyCard. The launch in
TRTC took place in June 2002. It started
in buses in September 2002.

The EasyCard is loaded with a
NT$ value enabling its holder to travel
all over the public transport network:
each operator deducts the appropriate
fare to be paid from the EasyCard stored
value used by the passenger in relation
with a relevant transfer policy to
encourage the use of public transport.