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Govt looks to boost smart card travel
10 Jul 2009

Plans to research ways of boosting smart card travel have been announced by transport secretary Lord Andrew Adonis.

He told the Transport Times Conference this week that smart card travel is "critical" to enabling travellers to switch between different forms of transport more easily.

Lord Adonis cited Japan as an example of a country that has successfully implemented the use of contactless smart cards to make travel more efficient, with tens of millions of people using their mobiles as a smart travel card on railways and subways.

He revealed that the Oyster pay-as-you-go scheme will soon be expanded to include rail journeys in London and that the government is also funding work to make the capital city compatible with the national standard for smart cards, ITSO.

"If we get this right then the whole country could follow London in revolutionising the connectivity of public transport, and increasing its use radically," Lord Adonis commented.

He added that the government will publish a consultation document on smart ticketing later this year, which will include some of the potential incentives that could be launched to enhance its development and usage.

More than 6.5 million people regularly use the Oyster travel card while, in Bolton, council smart card holders will soon be able to use their sQuid-enabled cards to pay for public transport.