Formerly called | Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation |
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ITSO Ltd is a non-profit membership organisation assisting standardisation of public transport ticketing in the United Kingdom. [1]
Its objectives are to:
ITSO was established as a result of discussions between various UK passenger transport authorities concerning the lack of standards for interoperable smart card ticketing. These discussions grew to include other authorities, transport operators and government. ITSO membership covers the breadth of the transport sector including transport operators (bus, tram and train operating companies), suppliers to the industry, local authorities and public transport executives. Supported by the Department for Transport, ITSO has links with major transport industry organisations and established smart card schemes in the UK and overseas.
ITSO started out as the Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation but this name has been dropped and is now just 'ITSO'. That is because the specification covers other forms of ticketing besides smartcards and transport.
The Department for Transport introduced in 2008 the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme for all people of retirement age and eligible disabled persons (according to the Transport Acts 1985 and 2000) using buses, which uses ITSO smart cards. Transport Scotland and the Welsh Government have implemented ITSO in their concessionary travel schemes.
The ITSO specification is a technical platform on which interoperable smart ticketing schemes can be built. It defines the key technical items and interfaces that are required to deliver interoperability between components of a ticketing system – smart media (smart cards), points of service and back offices – and separate ticketing systems. ITSO is unique in transport smart card specifications in that it covers all these components.
The English National Concessionary Travel Scheme is a national scheme by the Department for Transport in conjunction with local authorities across England, in which ITSO worked to standardise and ensure interoperability of cards and readers. The ITSO logo features on the bottom right corner of the bus pass.
The ITSO member list includes most of the major bus operators, ticket issuing system vendors and passenger transport executives. [2]
The largest commercial-based scheme is by Transport for London, marketed as Oyster. TfL has funded Oyster readers for all London rail stations in zones 1-6, and the Department for Transport has worked with TfL to ensure the readers are compatible with the ITSO specification. [3]
The UK's equivalent interoperability organisation for sectors other than transport ticketing is Lasseo, which provides an open specification for UK local authorities to add public services onto ITSO based cards. A Scottish consortium of local authorities looks at standard and interoperability issues in Scotland. [4]
In 2018, ITSO launched ITSO on Mobile, partnering with Google to allow passengers to buy and use ITSO tickets on their Android mobile phone. Transport operator members of ITSO can integrate ITSO on Mobile into their existing ITSO schemes, including their retail apps and websites. Purchased tickets are delivered to the Google Pay digital wallet on the phone. The first trials were in 2018 with West Midlands Metro.
ITSO on Mobile was made available for season tickets on West Midlands Metro as well as Transport for West Midlands' nNetwork season tickets in February 2021, [5] and the Tyne and Wear Metro in November 2020. [6]
ITSO on Mobile is delivered by Yotra Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of ITSO Ltd that has been created to develop, deliver into service and then operate ITSO on Mobile. [7]
The Oyster card is a payment method for public transport in London in England, United Kingdom. A standard Oyster card is a blue credit-card-sized stored-value contactless smart card. It is promoted by Transport for London (TfL) and can be used on travel modes across London including London Buses, London Underground, the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), London Overground, Tramlink, some river boat services, and most National Rail services within the London fare zones. Since its introduction in June 2003, more than 86 million cards have been used.
Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) is the public body responsible for co-ordinating transport services in the West Midlands metropolitan county in England. It is an executive body of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), with bus franchising and highway management powers similar to Transport for London. TfWM's policies and strategy are set by the Transport Delivery Committee of the WMCA.
Tyne and Wear PTE, branded as Nexus, is an executive body of the North East Joint Transport Committee and is best known for owning and operating the Tyne and Wear Metro. It replaced the Tyneside PTE on 1 April 1974.
CEPAS, the Specification for Contactless e-Purse Application, is a Singaporean specification for an electronic money smart card. CEPAS has been deployed island-wide, replacing the previous original EZ-Link card effective 1 October 2009.
Myki, stylised as myki, is a reloadable credit card-sized contactless smart card ticketing system used for electronic payment of fares on most public transport services in Melbourne and regional Victoria, Australia. Myki replaced the Metcard ticketing system and became fully operational at the end of 2012.
Calypso is an international electronic ticketing standard for microprocessor contactless smart cards, originally designed by a group of transit operators from 11 countries including Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, México, Portugal and others. It ensures multi-sources of compatible products, and allows for interoperability between several transport operators in the same area.
The OV-chipkaart is a contactless smart card system used for all public transport in the Netherlands. First introduced in the Rotterdam Metro in April 2005, it has subsequently been rolled out to other areas and travel modes. It fully replaced the national strippenkaart system for buses, trams, and metro trains in 2011, and the paper ticket system for rail travel in July 2014.
get me there is an electronic ticketing scheme under development by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) for use on public transport services in Greater Manchester, England. It was first announced and confirmed as an integrated travel card, comparable to London's Oyster card, for Greater Manchester in June 2012, following a bid from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
A transit pass or travel card, often referred to as a bus pass or train pass etc., is a ticket that allows a passenger of the service to take either a certain number of pre-purchased trips or unlimited trips within a fixed period of time.
The go card is an electronic smartcard ticketing system developed by Cubic Corporation, which is currently used on the Translink public transport network in South East Queensland, Australia. To use the go card, users hold the card less than 10 cm away from the reader to "touch on" before starting a journey, and must do the same to "touch off" the service at the end of the journey. The cost of each journey is deducted from the go card balance.
Iff card is a contactless smart card introduced in Cardiff in 2010. It allows customers to travel on Cardiff Bus services after having pre-paid.
CIPURSE is an open security standard for transit fare collection systems. It makes use of smart card technologies and additional security measures.
Contactless smartcards are being progressively introduced as an alternative option to paper ticketing on the National Rail system of Great Britain. Tickets for use on National Rail services can be loaded onto any ITSO card.
The TFI Leap Card is a contactless smart card for automated fare collection overseen by Transport for Ireland (TFI). It was introduced in the Greater Dublin area in 2011 for Luas, DART, Iarnród Éireann and Dublin Bus, but acceptance has significantly expanded, and it is now accepted in cities nationwide and on some longer distance commuter routes. Initially, Leap Cards offered only a pre-paid electronic wallet system for single-trip fares; since May 2014, it has also been possible to load it with weekly, monthly and annual subscriptions. In September 2017, there were over 2.5 million Leap Card users according to the National Transport Authority. The Leap Card is the result of many years' work by the Railway Procurement Agency and the National Transport Authority as part of the rollout of an integrated ticketing scheme for public transport in Dublin city. Fares are generally discounted compared to cash prices, and integrated ticketing is offered in the Dublin area via a flat fare system across all modes of transport. The minimum top-up for the card is currently €5, and it can be topped up via iPhone/Android App, at LUAS or DART ticketing machines, and in convenience stores offering Payzone services.
The Key is a contactless ITSO-compatible smartcard developed by the Go-Ahead Group used on buses, trains and other forms of public transport across various areas of the United Kingdom.
More Card is a rechargeable smart card for paying transportation fares in public transport systems in India. Tipped as a nationwide interoperable transport card, the card aims to be a single point of transaction, applicable in state buses, Metro and even parking. The card was launched in 2012 in Delhi, initially acting as a common card for the Delhi Metro and its feeder buses.
The West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) was the public body responsible for public transport in the West Midlands metropolitan county in the United Kingdom from 1969 until 2016. The organisation operated under the name Centro from 1990, and was publicly branded as Network West Midlands from 2005.
Swift is an electronic ticketing scheme developed by Transport for West Midlands for use on public transport in the West Midlands metropolitan area in England, similar to the Oyster card in Greater London. Rather than being a single card, it is a range of travel cards under a common name.
Ticketer is the brand name for a range of electronic ticket machines provided by British company Corvia Ltd, primarily for usage on buses. The "innovative" cloud-based system, first marketed on a small scale in 2008, has since developed into a rival to the three major ticket issuing systems used by bus companies throughout Britain.