"Fare reference" of a fare system

The most important fare system property is determining how far an individual ticket is valid. This may be an individual path leg, i.e. a new ticket has to be bought for each boarding. A second possibility would be that a ticket is valid for successive path legs within a fare system, and a new ticket only has to be bought when leaving the fare system and entering it again. Thirdly, a ticket may be valid for all path legs of a connection, which belong to the same fare system - even if path legs of other fare systems lie in between. All three cases are practice-related.

The central fare system attribute Fare reference is used to model this aspect and can assume one of the following values:

  • Each path leg separately: A ticket has to be bought for each path leg of the fare system.
  • Each group of contiguous path legs: A ticket has to be bought for each group of contiguous path legs of a fare system.
  • All path legs together: For all path legs together, i.e. for the whole trip, one ticket is sufficient for this fare system.

Path legs which belong to another fare system, can never be used with the same ticket.

Example: Fare system property "Fare reference"

We are looking at a connection with four path legs, with transport systems Bus – Tram – Train – Bus. Using the above example of the three fare systems: Bus and Tram belong to the same fare systems City, therefore, the same ticket types are valid. The transport system Train belongs to the fare system Rail.

To keep the example simple, let's assume the following ticket types:

  • Regular fare City: 100 CU for all distances.
  • Short-distance City: 60 CU for all trips up to max. 10 min. In the example, only the trip on the first bus is shorter than 10 min.
  • Regular fare Rail: 200 CU for all distances.

Even if the fare structure has been simplified, this example clearly shows, how the total fare changes subject to the fare-reference. Due to the fare reference, the following fares apply for the connection:

 

 

Fare refers to...

Path leg - TSys

Fare system

Each path leg separately

Each group of contiguous path legs

All path legs together

1 – Bus

City

60

(Short-distance)

 

100

100

also includes bus at the end

2 – Tram

City

100

3 – Train

Rail

200

200

200

4 – Bus

City

100

100

no extra fare

Fare total

 

460

400

300

  • In the first case the passenger pays for each path leg in the fare zone "City" individually and only for the first path leg is he allowed to use the short-distance ticket, because all other path legs have an operating time of more than 10 minutes.
  • In the second case the successive path legs 1 and 2 can be used with the same ticket.
  • Only in the third case do you only pay once for the entire fare zone "City".

The third path leg is ignored, because the "Train" belongs to a separate fare system.

The example of start and transfer fares are supplemented:

Example: Fare reference and initial and transfer fares

Supplement / deduction

FS City

FS Rail

Initial fare

100

200

Transfer fare from FS City to …

50

-20

Transfer fare from FS Rail to …

80

0

Both fare systems therefore require an initial fare as a base value at trip start. Transfers within the same fare system cost an additional 50 CU for the case "City". For the case "Rail", there are no extra charges. For a transfer from "Rail" to "City", an additional 80 CU are charged. For a transfer from "City" to "Rail", there is a discount of 20 CU.

The table below displays the initial and transfer fares, which are added to the base fares listed above:

 

 

Fare refers to...

Path leg - TSys

Fare system

Each path leg separately

Each group of contiguous path legs

All path legs together

1 – Bus

City

100

 

100

100

also includes bus at the end

2 – Tram

City

50

3 – Train

Rail

-20

-20

-20

4 – Bus

City

80

80

no extra fare

Sum of initial and transfer fares

 

210

160

80

Fare sum (s. above)

 

460

400

300

Total fare

 

670

560

380

Even if the example is simple, you can see what great influence the "Fare-reference" has on the fare calculation and thus on the fare itself. It is therefore very important to define it according to the real fare conditions of the modeled network.