The government is proposing a nationwideOyster-style smart cardticketing
system that could see the end of paper tickets.
It is
consulting over
plans to roll out a smart-ticket infrastructure in England that
will allow passengers to use their mobile phones or bank cards as
tickets.
The government estimates the system could save up to £2bn a year
through faster journey times and faster ticket purchasing.
The system will rely on a range of new technologies. The
Europay-Mastercard-Visa (EMV) standard is the new standard for
chip-based bank payment cards. The standard covers contactless
payment cards and a variety of chip and pin cards. It can be used
to enable people to tap their bank cards against payment readers
when they travel.
Contactless payment bank cards are currently being rolled out.
Barclays Bank expects the majority of its customers to have
received them by 2011.
The technology is being trialled on 200 buses in Liverpool, and
Transport for London is working towards a direct payment scheme on
the Oyster card.
Near
field communications (NFC) will enable passengers to use their
mobile phones as tickets. It is a means of
secure wireless communications across short distances, similar
to Bluetooth technology found on many phones. A transport
application can be loaded on to the mobile phone, and the NFC
allows the application to communicate with smartcard readers.
The roll out of NFC technology in phones will take some time
because. The government's consultation document says: "There is a
cost of implementation for manufacturers and so there needs to be a
business case for them to do so. NFC needs new standards and
business models to develop, which takes time."
The Department for Transport created the Integrated Transport
Smartcard Organisation (ITSO) to develop and manage a national
specification for integrated smartcard technology. The vision for
England is for all public transport to use the smartcard system,
starting with interoperable city-wide schemes.
The back office system supporting each journey will also need to
be rolled out nationally. The Host Operator Processing System
(HOPS) collects and processes all journey data but only a limited
number of HOPS exist in England at the moment. It is expensive and
the government is suggesting groups of organisations share one
system to spread costs.
Transport Minister Sadiq Khan said: "The technology and the
interest is already out there. I want to see a universal coverage
of smart ticketing on all modes of public transport in England as
quickly as possible."