Public transport companies have different types of tickets, providing a variety of services, from single tickets (one-journey ticket, zonal or origin-destination tickets) to single-modes and multi-modes tickets (combining multiple operators), etc. To facilitate boarding and transaction but also the integration of different modes under one card or system, transport authorities are pushing moving towards electronic ticketing, multimodal ticketing and smart cards.

Multimodal ticketing is a means to provide multiple travel options to the passenger under one transport card or device. It increases the accessibility of different systems and facilitates the transfer between the modes. Today with ICT, electronic ticketing is a tool that benefits both the passenger and the public transport or mobility services as it enables combining trips and modes in one single tool that can either be a contactless ticket card, a bank card, a multi-application card or an NFC (Near Field Communication)-enabled mobile device or online remote loading.

Multimodal ticketing requires a strong cooperation between the different operators.
Multimodal ticketing is usually account based, meaning that the fare-collection system in which the proof of entitlement to travel and records of travel are held in the back office, on servers and not necessarily on any physical media held by the passenger.

Account Based Ticketing differs from traditional card-based schemes because the business rules and fare calculation are managed in the back-office and the fare is calculated and billed after the trip is complete. This means that the fare-media used to tap in and out of the system is nothing more than a unique identifier for the customer linked to their account. Multimodal ticketing paves the way towards MaaS (Mobility as a Service).