Ticketing Archive

Jan 2013

Rambus Ecebs launch Android mobile app capable of reading and displaying the contents of all ITSO-based transport smart cards from any NFC enabled device.

Available from the Google Play store now, the new app entitled ‘Smart Ticket Checker’ acts as a mobile ticket and balance reader for travellers with ITSO-based transport ticketing smart cards.

The Smart Ticket Checker app reads all ITSO smart tickets on the market. Tickets such as Walrus, POP, The Key, NoWcard, IFF Card and more…

Rambus Ecebs Managing Director Russell McCullagh said:

“A key feature of the Smart Ticket Checker app is its ability to read the data on a smart card in a way that is meaningful to consumers. Passengers can now access information on their smart cards such as card balance, ticket purchase details, transaction history and even the class of ticket.

We have developed this app ‘in house’ to ensure that it delivers the best consumer experience possible, it is available now and can be used by anyone with an NFC device.”

“The use of NFC devices is growing rapidly and as it becomes more widespread, applications such as Smart Ticket Checker and the Ecebs Smart Ticket Retail application will allow scheme operators to take advantage of the much lower price point of NFC-enabled devices, enabling travellers to buy transport tickets or ‘top-up’ credit for ITSO-based smart cards directly from mobile phones rather than at a physical terminal or point of sale.”

A fully featured retail app has also been developed to enable the purchase and download of ITSO tickets via NFC mobile devices using Rambus Ecebs certified part 11 solution, Paragon RTD. Passengers can use the app to purchase and immediately download ITSO tickets over the internet.

Tickets can be stored on their mobile device (meaning the phone/tablet becomes the travel ticket) or they can use their mobile device to download the ticket directly onto their smart card. This too is available in white label form.

A white label version of the app is available to transport operators and other organisations that provide ITSO ticketing and wish to offer their own branded version of the app to their customers.

Visit Google Play to download the Smart Ticket Checker app free of charge.

December 2012

Congratulations to our PR team at Grayling Scotland for winning at the CIPR PRide awards Scotland.

The Smart Audit, carried out last year, won Silver in the Corporate and business communications category of the awards.

The Audit, that concluded in August 2011 featured questions in which local authorities were asked about current and future planned ‘smart’ implementations. The response level from councils was high with some 88% of those contacted providing answers to all questions asked. Grayling Scotland managed the campaign and the final outcome generated an interesting and useful insight into ‘smart’ activities across the UK at local government level.

The top 10 local authorities with the highest use of smart technology were:

1. Southampton City Council
2. Aberdeen City Council
3. Moray Council
4. Inverclyde Council
5. North Yorkshire County Council
6. Bristol City Council
7. West Sussex County Council
8. Dundee City Council
9. Aberdeenshire Council
10. West Lothian Council

Councils were also asked to identify the number of existing and planned services they offered that made use of smart technology, and which specific services were targeted. Not surprisingly transport topped the list of services using smart technology; however others included schools, I.D., Library services, Leisure, social care, health and sanitation.

The findings painted a clear picture that local government is actively pursuing a smart vision for the delivery of services to citizens. As a result of the successful campaign for smart audit, a second ‘smart audit 2’ is underway which will be reviewing council’s knowledge and use of NFC as well as smart cards. The findings will be available early next year, interested parties can receive a copy of the new report by contacting us.

Combined smart technologies and expertise will boost businesses.

Speeding up new developments available to the mobile transit ticketing sector a priority.

Bell ID, a global leader in the field of smartcard/contactless/mobile and application lifecycle management has announced the acquisition of East Kilbride, Scotland-based smart solutions business Ecebs Limited, from its parent company, thetrainline.com , for an undisclosed amount.

Bell ID’s new Version 6 multi-application smart token management software products are used internationally in secure banking/payment, national identity, public transit and other local government and commercial smart technology schemes. Ecebs solutions in smart transport ticketing, local government and payment are used extensively throughout the U.K and are now reaching international markets. It possesses a number of front-end technologies (including the Multefile platform & Paragon Remote Ticket Download) that complement Bell ID’s capabilities. Bell ID believes these will significantly enhance its offering to the growing market for smart ticketing/payment using mobile smartphones and other devices, and that it can develop and extend the reach of Ecebs capabilities into the other sectors it serves via its partners and TSM (Trusted Service Manager) relationships.

Pat Curran, Bell ID’s Executive Chairman, said: “We believe Ecebs is a great fit alongside Bell ID. We can provide the right environment to help take their expertise and activities to the next level, while adding critical mass and credibility to Bell ID. We have identified mobile transit ticketing, in particular, as a development priority.”

David Burdett, Ecebs Managing Director, said: “Ecebs vision has always been to provide solutions to a global marketplace while cementing and growing our U.K. market share. Bell ID is a global player and provides smart and mobile solutions that fit perfectly with Ecebs transport and payment offerings. We are very excited about the acquisition and look forward to further domestic and international growth.”

September 2012

The three-month trial of a smartcard ‘ticket at home’ system has exceeded expectations, and Merseytravel aim to be developing the system in conjunction with the full roll-out of their Walrus smartcard next year.

The system allows customers to download transport tickets on to their smartcard instantly through a reader attached to their PC.

“Response to the Remote Ticket Download (RTD) trial has been overwhelmingly positive, we can see many benefits, not just for the individual customers, but for the travelling public as a whole – reducing queuing, for example,” said Cllr Liam Robinson, Chair of Merseytravel.

Traditionally, smartcard systems require the user to go to a top-up point such as a ticket vending machine or manned kiosk to top up their smartcard, or to purchase smart tickets online and collect them at a rail gate or bus usually 24 hours later.

Merseytravel  saw the benefits of an ITSO smartcard solution which allowed the end user to directly download smartcard products securely.

The technical solution known as ITSO Part 11 Remote POST was an addition to the ITSO specification in 2012 and its implementation represents a UK first for Merseytravel and Rambus Ecebs.

The trial consists of two products – Pay As You Go (PAYG) for bus and Rail Pass for rail. Merseytravel operators Abellio are also active partners in the trail.

Mel Pashley, Strategic Account Director at Rambus Ecebs, commented: “RTD is Rambus Ecebs ITSO-certified delivery mechanism for the Merseytravel Walrus pilot. This is the first time that anyone has been able to provide ‘ITSO in the cloud’ in a commercial environment and we are delighted with the response to the trial and also with the vision of Merseytravel and Abellio to bring this to the market.”

Mike Walker, one of the fifty people across Merseyside taking part in the trial said: “For me the Walrus card is fantastic, the convenience of paying for it in advance, online from home really helps and saves having to queue up at the station in the morning.

“It’s great, you just present your card at the turnstile and walk straight through you don’t even have to take it out of your wallet, which reduces the chance of losing it too!”

The RTD trial was timed to link with Merseytravel’s Walrus Rewards programme.

The rewards programme based on customer research, aims to ‘add value’ to the Walrus card, encouraging the city region’s travelling public to engage with it as a brand and to use the card in ways that meet the objectives of the smartcard implementation project:

•    To track spend and usage.
•    To use data to drive engagement with different customer segments.
•    Customer Journey mapping.
•    To incentivise and reward touch technology usage.

After listening to customer feedback and subsequently creating and extensive communication and reward strategy, Sarah Cross, Managing Director of Uber, is looking forward to hearing from the participants:

“The trial marks the start of an exciting time for the people of Merseyside and we can’t wait to hear how users find the whole experience. We’ve worked hard on personalisation to find rewards that will really appeal to both residents and visitors of the city and we’re looking forward to offering even more exciting rewards as the Walrus evolves.”

Helen Mitchell, Merseytravel’s Head of Smart and Integrated Ticketing, added: “Benefits of the RTD solution will not only be used for travelling customers but our extensive retail network will be able to use the solution. We are already looking forward to how this solution can be rolled out, in our forthcoming school transport trial.”

September 2012

– Company awarded contract to collect details of bus journeys made by Freedom Pass holders outside London –

Smart technology company Ecebs has been awarded a two year contract by London Councils to collect details of bus journeys made outside London by Freedom Pass holders.

London Councils runs the Freedom Pass, Europe’s most comprehensive concessionary travel scheme for older and disabled people, on behalf of all the capital’s 33 local authorities. Ecebs has been contracted by London Councils to provide a single system to collect details of bus journeys made by all Freedom Pass holders outside the capital.

Each of the 1.3million Freedom Passes uses the UK standard system (ITSO) as well as Transport for London’s (TfL) smart ticketing scheme, Oyster, to record journeys made by pass holders. Oyster is used for trips made on the TfL network and London National Rail Services. ITSO is used on local bus services outside London.

Secondary legislation following the Concessionary Bus Travel Act 2007 requires all English Councils offering concessionary travel passes to have their own ITSO system. The Department for Transport is withdrawing ITSO support for London boroughs this month. (September).

David Burdett, Managing Director of Ecebs, said: “We are delighted to be working with London Councils on a project which will have a positive impact across London. The Paragon LITE solution provides a low cost migration path to full ITSO membership and can be expanded to meet increasing needs in the future very easily.”

The data is logged when Freedom Pass holders touch their pass on a card reader as they board a bus. The details of each journey are loaded into a database called a host operator processing system (HOPS).

Card readers are gradually being introduced on buses in local authorities outside London so the Paragon LITE system, will grow during the contract. On buses which do not yet have card readers, Freedom Pass holders show the bus driver their pass and journeys are recorded by the driver.

The London Councils contract is the latest in a series of wins for Ecebs which has extensive experience with ITSO. Paragon LITE was specifically developed to help local authorities adapt to the change in the law quickly and with minimal cost or disruption.

David Burdett added:

“The installation is expected to take just a few weeks as Paragon LITE is a very powerful and flexible solution that can be deployed very rapidly with no gap in service. We see this as very much a partnership, Ecebs is a key ITSO supplier with a wealth of smart card expertise which will be beneficial to London Councils both now and in the future.”

Created by Ecebs the technology enables travellers across the UK transport network to download their travel tickets on the move and tap their smartphone at ticket barriers to gain access to travel in the same way Oyster users do with their cards in London. The system will also use NFC (Near Field Communications) chip technology to convert people’s smartphones into mobile smart card ‘top up’ devices.

The news came just after transport secretary Justine Greening announced that smart cards are to be rolled out across the country in response to the recommendations of Sir Roy McNulty’s report into finding value for money in the UK rail network. The transport secretary aims to make £3.5bn in annual efficiency savings.

Once installed, Ecebs’ system will represent a big change in the way consumers buy and use travel tickets. For example, visitors from overseas will be able to purchase their travel needs in advance, download them to their mobile phone, arrive in the UK and travel immediately by simply swiping their phone at a gate.

Ecebs believes its Paragon RTD technology will form the future of mass transit ticketing in the UK and across the globe as the massive expansion in the use of smart media for everyday activities continues.

David Burdett, Managing Director, Ecebs said: “Paragon RTD is the first product of its kind and is ready for use throughout the UK transport network. It will greatly improve the ease of ticket purchasing for customers and provide peace of mind that transactions are safe.

I often hear members of the travelling public voicing frustration when using today’s ticketing systems, saying ‘Why can’t I just get my ticket or top up now, why isn’t there an app for that?’ Well now there is.

“We’re already speaking to a number of transport operators and integrators about putting systems in place during 2012 so expect to see this innovation in a location near you soon.

“The ‘ticket’ is locked into the technology contained within the smart phone or card so it can’t be copied unlike some other forms of ticketing media. It is possible for users to nominate a phone or card to use as the ticket, which creates many new possibilities. For example, a parent can conveniently arrange their children’s travel ensuring that their balance is topped up and will not leave their child stranded with no means of travel. In addition, as RTD is compliant with the UK standards body, it isn’t a propriety system, meaning it could be used on buses, trains, trams, ferries and subways all across the UK.”

Ecebs is the first company in the world to meet the Part 11 ITSO specification, which covers remote delivery of tickets over the internet and mobile environments. The news of the certification quickly followed agreement between Ecebs and the Department for Transport relating to Ecebs Patent applications in this area.