Transport Ticketing and Payment Systems: How We Design Scalable Solutions
Transport payment systems are not just about buying a ticket online. They are infrastructure handling thousands or even millions of transactions daily.
A mistake in architecture leads to failures, queues, revenue loss, and damaged user trust.
Typical scenario:
A simple system is launched — a website with payment functionality. Within a year, mobile apps, validators, and integrations are added. Within two, the system starts breaking under load.
To avoid this, ticketing systems must be designed as platforms from day one — not as isolated features.
What a Modern Ticketing System Actually Includes
A real transport payment system consists of multiple layers:
- payment layer (cards, QR, NFC);
- ticketing logic (tariffs, zones, rules);
- validation (entry/exit control);
- trip accounting;
- analytics and reporting;
- integrations (banks, transport systems, ERP).
All components must operate synchronously and without delays.
The Hard Part Is Not Payment — It’s Synchronization
Many assume payment processing is the most complex part. In reality, system coordination is the real challenge.
- payment succeeds, but the ticket is not activated;
- validators do not receive updates;
- data does not reach analytics systems;
- transaction conflicts occur.
That’s why the architecture must be event-driven and fault-tolerant.
How We Design These Systems
We don’t start with UI or features. We start with flows:
- how a transaction moves through the system;
- where delays occur;
- which data is critical;
- where failures can happen.
Then we build the architecture:
- service decomposition;
- queues and event streams;
- idempotent operations;
- fault tolerance;
- horizontal scalability.
Common Mistakes in Development
- monolithic architecture;
- lack of error handling;
- dependency on a single payment provider;
- no offline mode;
- absence of real-time updates.
Such systems fail at the first serious load or incident.
What Proper Architecture Enables
- processing thousands of transactions per second;
- high availability;
- scalability;
- flexible tariff management;
- seamless integrations.
Technologies We Use
- Node.js (NestJS) — backend logic
- Microservices — service independence
- Kafka / queues — event processing
- PostgreSQL — transactional data
- Redis — caching and performance
- Docker / Kubernetes — scaling
What Affects Development Cost
- number of payment channels;
- tariff complexity;
- integrations;
- system load;
- availability requirements.
These Systems Cannot Be “Fixed Later”
If the architecture is wrong, the system will not scale — it will need to be rebuilt.
That’s why system design is the most critical phase.
Submit a request — we’ll show how to build a system that scales with your business.