We hear it all the time. Booking seats and buying train tickets in Bangladesh and India are where the huge mobile commerce transactions will come from.
But this cartoon from The Daily Star in Dhaka is a true representation of what busses and trains are really like. A hawker, a driver, and packed. A reserve and pay system is unlikely the next step in the evolution.
What's the customer want? To get on the bus and go home as fast as possible.
Choosing a seat isn't near term viable. Limiting passenger numbers to bus/train designed capacity isn't either. Avoiding the queue by paying via mobile for a standing room only bus so you're first to get on is a potential benefit that's worth loading a mobile wallet for. Or avoiding a queue to be the last on a soon departing bus to get home faster. The solution must address the e-ticket issue to make sure the receipt is available off line (SMS?) and contains a code that is tough to replicate so the hawker/conductor/driver can ensure it's one time use and authentic. Or a more distributed way to print a mobile ticket.
Make sure you don't slow the hawker down with ticket authentication or target private bus systems like Jeepneys who avoid the tax man or you'll have missed the mark.
Anyone who says NFC for delivery, forget the expense, hasn't see the deep scrapes 8 feet all the way up a Bangali bus.
The solution must be a mix of mobile and manual.
Answer these 2 questions with the solution and you're likely on to something.
Does it make the customers journey faster (less time queueing)? Does it fill more buses/trains or make it fill and leave faster?