In July 2004, the Seoul Metropolitan Government introduced an integrated public transport payment system, called T-Money, for the first time in Korea.

The system, operated by LG CNS, an affiliate of LG Group, allows citizens to travel with a T-Money card, which can be used to pay fares for public transport, including buses, subways and urban railways.

The T-Money card provides convenience to its users by charging a differentiated fare based on the distance they travel and offering transfer discounts, while raising the efficiency of the city’s transport infrastructure.

LG CNS’s smart transportation management system has drawn attention overseas as it provides mega cities with solutions to deal with growing traffic problems. Growing populations and car numbers in cities have been accompanied by traffic jams, road accidents and wasted energy.

The company developed a range of services, including a traffic management system, automatic fare collection system, and a bus control and management system, all of which are aimed at providing eco-friendly and safe transport as well as improved mobility by applying smart technology.

Among these solutions, LG CNS’s traffic management system involves three steps; detecting, confirming and responding to users. The system checks real-time traffic conditions through various devices the company has already installed. Collected traffic data is automatically sorted out and then provided to public users in order to alleviate traffic congestion and prevent secondary accidents.

“In terms of the inconvenience of paying fares, passengers’ needs had not been addressed. To deal with this issue, we came up with an automated fare collection system, which allows the city to implement more advanced schemes, such as charging by distance, and providing transfer discounts in order to encourage people to use public transport more economically and conveniently,” an official of LG CNS said.

With its extensive experience in Korea, LG CNS has moved to other countries as well.

LG CNS implemented an automatic fare collection system in Wellington, New Zealand in April, 2008. The company then entered Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in March, 2011, where the rate of public transport use was around 20 percent, mainly due to low quality service.

The company was also selected as the provider of the integrated Colombian transport network system in July, 2011.

By Choi In-jeong (injeongchoi@heraldcorp.com)