The Suica 2 in 1 Region Affiliate card program started in March 2021 with the kickoff launch of totra, but the transit card is only reaching it’s completed vision this month with the August 26 service launch of the long delayed Utsunomiya City LRT.
As outlined at totra launch time, the Suica 2 in 1 card uses the next generation FeliCa SD2 chip and FeliCa OS to combine Suica functions with region tailored transit service extras in one card. All of the Suica 2 in 1 cards offer the basic minimum of bus commuter passes and automatic transit points, these multiple region transit specific points automatically earned and used for discount fares. Suica 2 in 1 were the first Suica cards with disability fares, some Suica 2 in 1 region cards also offer senior fare cards.
Transfer fare discounts: discounts for bus~LRT transfers that cap wider region to city center transit fare at ¥500
Fare capping: fares capped at ¥400 for city area transit
Transit points: automatic transit points earned and used when riding region transit (bus and LRT).
Senior transit subsidy: annual ¥10,000 senior (70+) fare subsidy awarded as ‘Welfare Transit Points’.
The last one is an interesting one and illustrates the differently tailored region services, AKICA for example offers senior fare cards while Utsunomiya pays an annual senior transit subsidy. There are a few nice surprises on the LRT FAQ page such as paying group fare with a single Transit IC card and more totra extras such as day passes are in the works. As totra is also a Suica card it comes with all the JR East benefits as well: JRE POINT, Eki-Net Shinkansen eTickets, Suica Day Passes, etc.
There will be a lot more new Suica services coming as Suica 2.0 is rolled out in addition to My Number card region linked services. New developments leveraging individually tailored transit and region based services will be coming over the next 4 years. This kind of highly customized closed loop account based ticketing is extremely difficult to achieve with open loop.
2 in 1 Commuter Passes: a JR East Suica commuter pass and a region affiliate commuter pass
2 in 1 Points: JRE POINT and region affiliate transit points
Other region affiliate services: a totra card for disabled users with special discount fares/subsidies, welfare points (starting April 2021) for elder and disabled transit users
…all in one Suica card. This is more important that it seems and solves some long standing problems. Let’s look at the situation with the wonderfully useful Transit IC card chart created by Wiki user ButuCC.
The core square contains the 10 mutual use ‘Transit IC’ cards with many IC arrows pointing to region transit cards outside of the square. This means the core Transit IC cards work on those local transit systems but only one way. There are no IC arrows pointing in towards the core region because there are no regional transit cards mutually compatible with all core Transit IC cards…until now: totra Suica is the first region transit card that works nationwide.
2 in 1 Suica combines the ‘outside the square’ region card with the core Suica card. totra is a Suica card, mutually compatible with all Transit IC, but also a local transit card with new services built on Suica infrastructure. One example: the first transit IC card for disabled users that automatically gives them the local region discount fare and subsidy, but only for the totra fare region, not outside it. Disabled fares are highly regional with local prefecture and city governments providing transit services and fare discounts. It’s a trade off but it does provide a transit IC card option for disabled users instead of paper tickets with a ID card for the first time.
Super Suica or something else? So is this Super Suica or not? Simply put, Suica 2 in 1 is the core technology for the JR East MaaS strategy, it offers the benefits of Suica infrastructure to link local transit agencies within the JR East area who don’t have the resources to launch or maintain their own transit IC card system. Plugging orphaned regions into the wider transit network and leveraging the established infrastructure in new ways is the sensible thing to do.
The totra Suica logo explains some of what is going on inside the card. There is a ‘+’ mark which indicates ‘Suica plus affiliate’ that combines Suica with an attached financial service like credit card recharge. This is the Suica plus mark you see on all Mobile Suica cards including Mizuho Suica (iOS) and Rakuten Suica (Android).
There is also a ‘••’ mark which indicates FeliCa Pocket services, FeliCa applets on a physical card or Osaifu Keitai card that provide different services in a single card (transit, points, ID, etc.). You can see the ‘••’ Suica logo on Rinkai Suica and Monorail Suica and both marks on the Suica + VIEW combo cards. The Rinkai Suica design also looks like totra with a similar blue trapezoid.
FeliCa Dude points out in an interesting Twitter thread with treastrain that 2 in 1 is a new kind of Suica plus affiliate card issued outside of JR East with no financial service attached to it. As treastrain notes, it’s weird that Suica plus is being used for a rechargeable ¥500 deposit Suica with no attached credit card, but we are in uncharted territory with new features to come.
Suica 2 in 1 is the first Suica based on the new FeliCa Standard SD2 card. We can’t see exactly how FeliCa SD2 is used to deliver 2 in 1 functionality but FeliCa Dude gives us an excellent rundown of 2 important additions: Extended Overlap Service (points and passes) and Value Limited Purse Service (purse). These are tools for JR East and the other Transit IC operators to integrate services in new ways, implement their own version of 2 in 1, raise the balance limit and more. The new FeliCa SD2 features have big implications. Like all things the Super part of Super Suica depends on what JR East and the other CJRC members (Congress of Japanese Railway Cybernetics) mutually accomplish using these new FeliCa and Suica parts. The more region transit cards that migrate and merge inside the Transit IC square while addressing regional needs, the better.
totra Suica 2 in 1 has 2 issue numbers for JR East and the region transit card operator. JR East owns the SF (stored fare) purse, which means they own the float.Suica 2 in 1 extensively uses the new FeliCa Standard SD2 Extended Overlap Service
What about mobile? It’s important to remember that 2 in 1 Suica extends Transit IC coverage, including Mobile Suica and Mobile PASMO, into new transit areas. 2 in 1 Suica is limited to plastic issue at this point so those users do not have a mobile option. 2 in 1 Mobile Suica service depends on resolving 4 things:
Will Mobile FeliCa be upgraded with the new FeliCa SD2 functions?
Will Mobile FeliCa be updated on Osaifu Keitai and Apple devices?
Will JR East manage Mobile Suica card issue for outside transit companies
Is there an (local 2 in 1 Suica transit card) app for that?
Mobile Suica already hosts Suica ‘+’ cards (Mizuho Suica and Rakuten Suica) and FeliCa Pocket services are designed for physical cards and mobile. 2 in 1 is a new card so the first hurdle is upgrading Mobile FeliCa to support SD2 card features and pushing that update to devices.
FeliCa Dude posted some tweets that suggest Mobile FeliCa 4.x on Android devices can be updated but industry practice on the Android side so far has been doing a pre-install and leaving it at that. If users want newer Mobile FeliCa features, get a new device. Apple can certainly update Mobile FeliCa on their custom embedded secure element, but will they?If nothing else I think the recent addition of Garmin Pay Suica and Fitbit Pay Suica indicates that FeliCa Networks is getting better at pushing new services from Mobile FeliCa Cloud.
The app question is another hurdle and a bit complicated. The whole 2 in 1 concept means 2 different managed services are bundled in a single card. Who manages what? While it makes sense to add 2 in 1 Suica non-JR East local commuter routes for purchase and renewal in Mobile Suica and Suica App, local area transit point account management needs to be handled in a separate app. Does each 2 in 1 Suica locale handle that? That approach makes sense but JR East could certainly help with coordinating support and leveraging common resources and infrastructure to eliminate redundancy.
Summary 2021 is only the start line for 2 in 1 Suica with totra and Iwate Green Card. 2022 will see 6 more 2 in1 Suica cards, probably more, it will be the real coming out year. By then Mobile ICOCA will be on the horizon, I think we’ll know if 2 in 1 is the start of Super Suica…or not. If the other Transit IC partners simply copy what JR East is doing with 2 in 1 region cards, that will be super enough for the people who live, work and go to school in those regions.
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