February 2014
Nottingham City Council extends ITSO smart ticketing capabilities through new Cloud based technology
– New Technology will change the way people can access travel tickets –
Commuters in Nottingham will soon be able to buy their tickets online and download them directly to their smart cards via NFC smart phones thanks to a new deal between Nottingham City Council and Ecebs, the UKs leading provider of Web, NFC and Card enabled smart ticketing.
Nottingham City Council has already incorporated Rambus Ecebs extensive Paragon smart ticketing products into its transport offerings, which underpin concessionary and Citycard schemes, and soon travellers will also be able to use kiosks across the City to pick up their smart travel tickets.
Rambus Ecebs cloud based Paragon Remote Ticket Download software enables the council to deliver convenient and cost effective smart ticketing instantly via existing points of service across the city. Customers will also be able to buy and download tickets at home or on the go using their PC, NFC smartphone or tablet by simply holding their Citycard against their device.
Russell McCullagh, Managing Director of Rambus Ecebs said: “We are delighted that together with Nottingham City Council we can positively impact the experience of smart ticket travel. Our Paragon RTD software is transforming the way we purchase and pick up travel tickets. It enables commuters to instantly add pay-as-you-go top-ups and tickets to their smart card or NFC device. Tickets and top-ups can also be delivered through new or existing infrastructure such as kiosks and retail collection points across the city, meaning greater convenience and choice for customers.
We have simplified the integration process for organisations’ wishing to offer ITSO based ticketing products and the speed of rollout in Nottingham is testament to this.”
Paragon RTD was the first solution certified to ‘Part 11’ of the UK Government mandated ITSO specification, which defines the technical standard for interoperable smart ticketing. Ecebs conceived and created this innovative form of smart ticketing and Paragon RTD is the only proven and scalable implementation on the market, with live implementations now in full scale operation across the UK.
Jason Clifford from the Public Transport Projects Team at Nottingham City Council said: ” Our objective is to deliver a world-class transport ticketing network. While the network is ambitious in scale it is our firm belief that it is possible to grow the market by providing a step change in the ease of ticket purchase for both existing and new customers.
The Citycard network is designed to complement the existing travel centres providing new retail channels that offer customers new and more convenient ways to purchase and crucially, collect tickets.”
Rambus Ecebs provides a number of ITSO accredited products to customers across the UK, this contract win will see the council extend its smart ticketing provision to encompass the most innovative ticketing technology available.
About ITSO & Part 11
ITSO is the UK Government mandated technical standard for interoperable smart ticketing. Part 11 pof the ITSO standard was created by Rambus Ecebs and included in the ITSO standard in 2010. Rambus Ecebs branded Part 11 software is known as Paragon RTD (Remote Ticket Download) and uses a remotely located server or ‘Post’ (Point of Service Terminal) to securely manage ticket purchase, ticket downloads & pay-as-you-go top-ups using a smart card or NFC device across multiple points of service such as terminals, kiosks, ticket vending machines and other NFC based tablets or mobile phones.