One in eight (13%) of North American and western European mobile users will use their NFC-enabled mobile phones as a metro rail or bus ticket by 2016, compared with less than 1% today, according to Mobile Ticketing Evolution, a new report from Juniper Research.

The report also found that worldwide mobile ticketing transactions are set to quadruple to 23bn by 2016 and that NFC tickets will represent 50% of all mobile ticket revenue that year.

The report warns, however, that NFC ticketing must be thoroughly tested before being launched to the public. For metro and bus tickets in particular, speed of passenger processing is of the essence and queues must not be allowed to build up as a result of ticket processing delays either in mobile phones, gating or back office systems.

“NFC mobile ticketing is still in its early stages, but it holds great promise across the entire mobile ticketing market,” says David Snow, author of the new report. “Metro ticketing is leading the way as an NFC ticket is a natural evolution from a contactless transport card and can leverage the existing infrastructure.  Add to this the option of simultaneous payment and you have created a compelling user experience.”

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