As operators look to improve passenger experience and protect revenue, many feel the only option is to push mobile-only or registration-required ticketing systems in order to create passenger profiles. But there is an alternative. One that is already possible, and allows passengers to remain anonymous: the payment footprint.
Every time a passenger pays for transit, whether tapping a card at a gate, buying a ticket in an app, or using a ticketing vending machine, payment data is generated and collected as part of that transaction. When captured by the payment gateway, this data can be used by operators to reconstruct the payment footprint and unlock far more value than most operators realise.
This article explains the concept of the payment footprint and why a payment method is much more than just a substitute for a passenger’s right to travel. It explores how using the payment footprint enables operators to improve passenger experiences, strengthen revenue protection, and increase operational efficiency, while remaining fully privacy compliant, even when passengers choose to remain anonymous.
When we talk about the payment footprint, we're referring to two sets of data points.
The first is what most operators already use in their tap-to-ride systems: the payment method data. This includes a physical bank card (PAN), a digital card token (DPAN), or a device-specific identifier (such as the ICC). In many systems, this payment method effectively substitutes the conventional right to travel.
The second, and the one that changes what is possible, is the payment source. This refers to the underlying data that links different payment methods and channels to the traveller. In many cases, this can be unique financial data, identified through data points such as the Funding Primary Account Number (FPAN), the scheme-defined Payment Account Reference (PAR) or Apple Pay/Google Pay identifier. In other cases, it can be another permitted identifier or reference that is accessible and suitable for linking transactions to a traveller.
A passenger may switch between a physical card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or an in-app payment, but the payment source often remains the same. When the payment method and source are used together, you no longer see isolated transactions; instead you can reconstruct the complete view of the passenger's cross-channel payment history, aka the payment footprint.
Working with the payment footprint allows you to create anonymous passenger profiles without breaching the passenger's privacy. Linking transactions, journeys, and payment behaviour at the passenger level, without needing to know who that passenger is.
For years, public transport operators have treated the payment method, such as a bank card, as a stand-in for a personal ticket, effectively making a passenger’s bank card their right to travel. But this approach has a critical flaw: it does not allow transactions to be individualised at the passenger level. It only reflects the payment method being used at that moment.
Passengers regularly switch between cards, wallets, and sales channels, and each time they do, traditional payment systems see multiple “passengers” where there is only one. This can lead to friction, operational inefficiency, and blind spots in fraud detection.
Using the payment footprint allows operators to move beyond isolated transactions and use payment data as a foundation for decision-making. When applied consistently across the network, it delivers three outcomes that directly affect passenger experience, revenue protection, and operational efficiency.
1. Improved Passenger Experiences
Passengers expect to be recognised as the same passenger when buying travel rights, regardless of whether they choose to switch between payment methods or sales channels, or choose to remain anonymous.
The payment footprint makes this consistent recognition possible and enables anonymous passengers to access services typically available only to registered travellers, such as aggregated receipt overview, discounts, and prepaid travel rights. It also supports self-service functions like cross-channel receipt access and transaction look-ups.
The payment footprint also enables interoperability, allowing passengers to move across regions and operators without losing continuity. All of this creates a seamless experience while preserving anonymity, and allows any later registration to build on an existing travel history rather than starting from zero.
2. Stronger Revenue Protection
The payment footprint also strengthens revenue protection. By analysing payment behaviour at the payment source level, systems can detect anomalies such as frequent addition of digital cards, simultaneous journeys, repeated failed recoveries, or unusual refund patterns. These signals make it possible to take preventative action early, before fraud scales or revenue is lost.
Because every transaction remains linked within the anonymous profile, operators retain full accountability for taps, retries, offline transactions, and settlements. Failed transactions can be rerouted in a different payment channel when needed, reducing lost journeys and uncollected revenue.
3. Increased Operational Efficiency and Control
The payment footprint enables aggregation of financial reporting across sales channels. No more multiple reports that need manual processing. This reduces operational complexity, enables consistent reporting, and allows debt collection to be handled more effectively, while lowering the volume of payment-related enquiries requiring manual intervention.
Because the payment footprint uses multiple data points, it is more reliable than trusting a single, payment-scheme-controlled source. This increases resilience, improves negotiating positions, and helps manage long-term costs, while retaining control over the data used to operate and protect the system.
Public transport operators are well positioned to build on existing capabilities, as the opportunity today lies not in collecting more data, but in making better use of the payment data already available. By moving beyond payment methods alone and working with the full payment footprint, operators can build on what they already have and continue to improve passenger experience, strengthen revenue protection, and increase operational efficiency. Without investing in complex bespoke ticketing systems or accepting unnecessary fragmentation.
This approach is available now. It requires an omnichannel payment platform, built on financial expertise that can collect payment data across all channels and make both payment methods and payment sources available to operators. When used this way, payment data becomes an operational asset, enabling anonymous passenger profiles, account-based benefits without mandatory registration, behavioural revenue protection, and a unified view of payments across the network.
XPP’s VayaPay Smart Payment Platform is designed to support exactly this model. Sitting between mobility providers and the financial ecosystem, and fully PCI DSS certified, VayaPay provides a single, interoperable payment layer that gives operators the flexibility, control, and independence to evolve their payment strategies over time.
The payment data is already there. The opportunity lies in choosing how to use it.
