Integrated ticketing?

fjon

From the Independent. Sounds interesting if they manage to pull it off. It's already in operation in other European cities for the last ten years.


THE proposed new integrated transport ticket will soon be the "ping in your pocket", bleeping as a commuter boards a Dublin bus, diverts to a Dart, or leaps on a Luas without needing to show their ticket.

There will be no need for a customer to display the smart card because the technology will allow it to be recognised through clothing, bags, and pockets.

A pilot project has been underway to test the new "contactless smartcard" integrated ticket, which does not need to be swiped against a receiver instrument.

After a successful experiment on a number of private coaches by the Rail Procurement Agency (RPA), the ticket is to be tested on the Luas from January.

Junior Transport Minister Ivor Callely told the Irish Independent last night: "It is very futuristic, but it promises a revolution for Irish commuters by 2006, when we hope to have it comprehensively available.

"It will be introduced on a phased basis and we hope to have the first ones available to the public next month."

The Department of Transport has found that buses are stopped for up to 20pc of their time because of the need to funnel paying passengers through driver-ticketing.

"You will be able to top-up this smartcard just as you would a mobile phone," Mr Callely said. "The one card will not only be able to pay for buses, Dart and Luas, but also for park-and-ride facilities.

"Further down the road we also expect it to be deployed on the West Link and for other tolls."

Free smartcards will be given to pensioners entitled to free travel, Mr Callely said, although there was still attention being given to how to prevent a pensioner card being misused.

It is intended that there will be a bearer's picture on the card.

The RPA is in separate consultations with the Department of Social and Family Affairs on aspects of the integrated ticket, Mr Callely added.

"I believe we can have 60pc of commuters using the card within a year. It is a truly remarkable development that will represent real progress in terms of putting the passenger and commuter first," he said.

Senan Molony
Political Correspondent

jbkenn

fjon wrote:

From the Independent. Sounds interesting if they manage to pull it off. It's already in operation in other European cities for the last ten years.

Dont ya just love "Rocket Science"

jbkenn

segadreamcast

A step firmly in the right direction - especially if they can pull this system off on Dublin Bus/LUAS.

antoinolachtnai

There's no city in Europe or anywhere else that I know of with a system as described (where you don't need to take out a card and hold it against a reader). Quite apart from anything else, this would have major privacy implications.

embraer170

It was tried in Switzerland in 2000/2001, the idea was a countrywide system and you would get a bill at the end of every month. Trials didn't go too well (problems with the technology) and haven't heard anything since.

strassenwolf

An update from the Sunday Business Post Today

*********************************************************
Integrated ticketing two years away

04 September 2005 By Niamh Connolly, Public Affairs Reporter
The €30 million integrated ticketing scheme, which was due to be launched in December, has been delayed after the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) failed to select a company to run the project.

Integrated ticketing will allow customers to buy a single ticket covering all public transport, including the Luas, the Dart, mainline trains and buses, as well as some private coach operators. Luas and private operators use electronic smart cards, while Dublin Bus has its own automated tickets.

The RPA is expected to seek further tenders for the contract, 12 months after five international companies were short-listed for consideration.

Last January, three companies -Alphyra, Cubic and Fujitsu withdrew from the tendering process, leaving just two firms in the race, ERG of Australia and Turkish firm KenKart.

However, the companies were deemed unsuitable. “No solution appropriate for Dublin and satisfactory to the RPA has emerged from the procurement process to date,” said a spokesman for the agency, “therefore no company has been appointed'‘.

So far, the state agency has spent €8.4 million on the design of the scheme, though little progress has been made in its roll-out. The Department of Transport has asked the RPA for full details of its spending to date. *********************************************************

jubbly

its always 2 years away. PATHETIC SHAM OF A COUNTY WE LIVE IN

murphaph

RPA Clowns wrote:

No solution appropriate for Dublin and satisfactory to the RPA has emerged from the procurement process to date

Because Dublin is just such a special case that a system used somewhere else isn't good enough. Fcukin useless shower of c**ts, the RPA, CIE, Government, unions-the whole fcukin shower. :mad:

SeanW

They really need to just make a textbook ripoff of the BVG system in Berlin, or TfL in London. They have truly integrated ticketing in that you pay for travel through zones, inside zones etc, instead of paying sperately for transport modes such as tram, bus, S-Bahn etc.

mackerski

SeanW wrote:

They have truly integrated ticketing in that you pay for travel through zones, inside zones etc, instead of paying sperately for transport modes such as tram, bus, S-Bahn etc.

This is the crux of the problem. The Dublin smart card scheme, as announced so far, isn't integrated ticketing, any more than the current system is integrated just because you pay for each ticket with the same species of banknote. It may help speed up the boarding of buses, but it won't make an ad-hoc Luas and bus or rail and bus journey any less costly.

Dermot

Sesshoumaru

What a joke! Dublin is so *****in special that there is no smart card system in place anywhere in the world that would be suitable for our special city??? Why are we paying these muppets? We pay them millions to produce report after report after report! If I hadn't already decided to buy a motorbike for my commuting needs I'd be pretty frustrated reading this news!

MarkoP11

Its not Dublin its the RPA having the we must be different afterall they are trying to keep themselves in business, it would be too easy to phone up Ken in London. Its all been done and if it works in London which has a vastly more complex transport system run by heaps of different companies surely it can work here

The question to ask is how much money have the RPA wasted on the smartcard system ? Its useless they know that since its printed on the back of the card

cdebru

murphaph wrote:

Because Dublin is just such a special case that a system used somewhere else isn't good enough. Fcukin useless shower of c**ts, the RPA, CIE, Government, unions-the whole fcukin shower. :mad:

did you read the article what has it to do with unions or CIE it is the RPA or is it just an excuse for you to call people *****