Ticketless, Contactless, Secure: Facial Recognition in Asian Rail & Metro Systems

The Rise of Smart Transport in Asia

New roads are being laid, railways are steadily expanding, and cities are working hard to keep up with the daily movement of millions of people. In five years the region’s road network is expected to grow by 8 million kilometres, reaching nearly 29 million in total.

Rail is expanding too: the conventional railway jumped from 350,000 km in 2000 to almost half a million km in 2020. 

Urban transit is matching that pace. Metro and light rail systems are growing as quickly in this decade as they did in the past twenty years combined.

But rapid growth also brings a familiar set of headaches:

• How do you move millions of people efficiently?
• How do you keep systems secure?
• How do you prevent passengers from turning back to private cars?

To stay competitive, public transport operators are reaching for new tools. Among the most promising is facial recognition technology — offering ticketless boarding, contactless convenience, and enhanced security in a single system across Asia.

Why Facial Recognition Matters for Public Transport

The Asia-Pacific biometric technologies market was valued at US$ 11.15 billion in 2022 and is forecast to reach US$ 35.43 billion by 2030, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.5% from 2022 to 2030. Within this broad market, public transport is one of the key fields where adoption is accelerating.

In rail and metro systems, facial recognition tech advantages are especially clear because it provides:

• Faster boarding: Passengers quickly walk through gates without fumbling for tickets.
• Fare protection: Linking access to a verified identity reduces ticket fraud.
• Security alerts: Real-time facial biometric detection helps authorities manage risks and prevent security incident before it occurs.
• Contactless travel: A priority since the COVID-19 pandemic, reducing physical touchpoints while ensuring reliable identity checks.

How Asia Is Testing Facial Recognition on the Rails

Japan: Steps Toward Ticketless Travel

Japan is often among the first to test new technologies, and biometrics are no exception. East Japan Railway (JR East) is running a trial on the Joetsu Shinkansen line. Travelers register their face once, then simply walk through stations — no paper ticket, no delays.

Meanwhile, the Osaka Metro has already rolled out facial recognition gates at nearly all of its stations — 130 out of 134. Early results suggest smoother passenger flow, fewer bottlenecks at peak hours, and a stronger layer of security. If the trials continue to prove successful, similar systems could appear across both high-speed and conventional rail lines in Japan over the next decade.

Indonesia: Smoother Boarding, Greener Travel

Indonesia uses facial recognition boarding gates at 22 major stations. Travelers link their tickets to their profile via a mobile app, and board contact-fre.

The benefits are practical — shorter lines and less paper waste — but also strategic. Indonesia faces growing congestion and rising car ownership, both of which strain the economy and environment.

Biometric boarding is part of a broader push to make rail travel not only faster but also greener and more attractive compared to driving. 

India: Biometrics for Safer Stations

India is taking a different route. Here, facial recognition is being introduced not for boarding but for security.

The government has announced plans to install AI-powered facial recognition systems at 7 of the nation’s busiest railway stations. The goal is to help security teams identify individuals linked to serious offenses in real time. By automating identity checks, the new systems are expected to improve monitoring without adding more strain to human staff.

Challenges and Considerations

Despite all the benefits, deploying facial recognition in public transport raises important challenges:

• Privacy concerns: Citizens are increasingly aware of how their biometric data is collected and stored. Strong data protection laws and transparent communication are critical.

• Accuracy across demographics: Systems must be trained to handle diverse Asian populations, including variations in skin tone, age, and cultural attire.

• Infrastructure costs: While biometric gates lower long-term operational costs, initial deployment requires substantial investment. This is a key concern for emerging economies.

Vendors like RecFaces address these issues with privacy-compliant, scalable, and cost-efficient biometric solutions for transport authorities.

The Future of Urban Mobility in Asia

By 2050, Asia’s rail and metro ridership is expected to grow by 97% compared with the pre-pandemic peak. Roads, however, will keep expanding at double the pace of railways. To prevent worsening congestion and emissions, public transport must be made more attractive, efficient, and secure. Facial recognition is a cornerstone of this transformation.

Future trends include:

• Integration with digital wallets and super apps, enabling seamless multimodal payments.
• Expansion to intercity travel, including high-speed rail lines where facial biometrics replace paper or mobile tickets.
• AI-powered analytics to forecast passenger flows, optimize timetables, and reduce congestion.
• Sustainability gains, as biometric-driven efficiency encourages more passengers to shift from private cars to metros and railways.

Conclusion: A New Era of Transport

Asia’s transport transformation is not just about adding kilometres of tracks and metros — it is about building smarter, safer, and more sustainable systems. Facial recognition is central to this evolution, offering a solution to the region’s unique mobility challenges: explosive urbanization, surging passenger numbers, and sustainability imperatives.

For Asian economies striving to balance infrastructure growth with environmental goals, biometric-enabled rail and metro systems represent the future of urban mobility. 

Facial biometric software vendors like RecFaces are well positioned to provide the expertise, technology, and compliance needed to make Asian metros and railways ticketless, contactless, and secure for millions of daily passengers.

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