Ticketing 8.2 million passengers daily necessitates radio frequency identification technology for the Moscow Metro

The Moscow Metro, a state-owned enterprise, is the largest mass transport authority in the world with about 278kms of route length of track with 12 lines and 172 metro stations. The sprawling city has more than nine million inhabitants of which an estimated 8.2 million every day use the immense Moscow Metro linking suburbs to the city centre and beyond.

UPM Raflatac has been selected to supply radio frequency identification (RFID) inlays for contactless passenger tickets on the Moscow Metro. UPM will supply inlays in cooperation with Moscow-based Comvision Russland for ticket converting at JSC Mikron.

UPM Raflatac is a world-leading supplier of pressure sensitive labelstock for a wide variety of needs in product and information labelling. In addition, the company is at the global forefront in the development and high-volume production of RFID tags and inlays.

UPM Raflatac has around 2,300 employees and annual sales of USD 1.5bn (RMB 10.5bn) in 2006. The company has a global service network consisting of 11 factories on five continents and a broad network of terminals and sales offices worldwide. UPM Raflatac is part of UPM. UPM is one of the world’s leading forest products groups. The company’s main products include printing papers, converting materials and wood products. The company has production plants in 15 countries and its main market areas are Europe and North America. UPM's shares are listed on the Helsinki and New York stock exchanges.

Secure ticketing

Tickets on the metro are available for a fixed number of journeys, irrespective of the distance of travel and the number of lines changed. Monthly and yearly tickets are also available. Until now, passengers have used magnetic-stripe cards prepaid for a specific length of time-usually one month. In some cases, however, these tickets were being counterfeited and used fraudulently. About two years ago, Moscow Metro began employing contactless RFID plastic smart cards for students and other special fares, which the metro found accelerated the rate of entry and traffic flow for those passengers.

 “In the first stage, the monthly usage of UPM Raflatac High Frequency (HF) inlays based on the Mifare Ultralight standard will be five million pieces. After a transitional period at the end of summer 2007, usage will rise to approximately 30m inlays per month. Mass transit ticketing is one of the biggest application areas for HF RFID. Being chosen by the leading metro system clearly demonstrates that our HF inlays have the quality and performance required in mass transit,” says Marcus Vaenerberg, vice president of sales at UPM Raflatac.

Integrating RFID systems

 Comvision is a supplier of consumables and components for the telecom and RFID markets. Its subsidiary company is Moscow-based Comvision Smart Systems which is a system integrator for RFID solutions.

“The RFID reader works faster and is more stable than the magnetic one. On top of that they are much more reliable due to the fact that they have no paper transport system. It’s a very important cost and effort saving factor. They are more reliable and resistant to long-term use due to lack of mechanical interaction between the card and the reader element. Furthermore, the new non-contacting tickets have the higher level of security,” says Natalia Foteeva, general director, Comvision Russland.

“The Moscow Metro project is a lighthouse project which would be considered as a breakthrough success story for all other interventions on the Russian and CIS markets. So far we are purchasing the inlays produced by UPM Raflatac. Also we have introduced UPM paper division as a main supplier for paper used for the ticket production. UPM Raflatac can supply the whole range of its products for existing customers of Comvision Russland and new projects of Comvision Smart Systems,” says Foteeva

The Moscow Metro

After the two Russian Revolutions in February and October of 1917, St. Petersburg was no longer the capital of Russia. Moscow became the capital of the Soviet state known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). At that time approx. 1.8 million people lived in the new capital.

The construction of the Moscow Metro was initiated under a general plan in the 1930s with the first line being inaugurated on 15 May 1935. And in 1937 the metro extended over the Moscow River via a bridge and later the Yauza River. However, most of the metro lines are underg

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