Go-Ahead
Go-Ahead has fu
lly embraced ITSO over the past few years, and in many areas, the Group is leading the way, with several industry firsts already achieved and many more planned.
Go-Ahead’s ITSO produce is marketed as The Key. To date, Go-Ahead has piloted The Key in its London Midland rail operation, initially trialling it in the West Midlands, and now rolling it out across 30 additional stations on the Snow Hill lines into Birmingham city centre.
The Key smartcard allows passengers to buy their season tickets at self service machines in railway stations, or buy online and collect at stations in a one-touch transaction, meaning customers can enjoy faster passage through ticket barriers.
In Oxford, Go-Ahead’s Oxford Bus Company introduced a full ITSO scheme last year, and there are now over 30,000 active Key smartcards in use.
The new ITSO scheme includes a wide range of products, available to buy both online or in person at Oxford Bus Company’s travel shop in Debenhams in the city centre. There are three main product variants: annual season, for very regular commuters; period season, activated on first use and available in 1, 4 or 13 week blocks and multi journey, a convenient pay as you go product, for occasional passengers.
Oxford Bus is now working with Stagecoach to introduce an inter-operable smartcard as part of the Transform Oxford scheme so that passengers can load an interoperable ITSO product on to either a Go-Ahead or Stagecoach smartcard and use it seamlessly for travel between different operators’ services.
Five further bus schemes are due to be implemented at Go-Ahead this year – by Go North East, where a successful pilot has already been delivered, Go South Coast, Brighton and Hove, Metrobus and Plymouth CityBus.
In Brighton and Hove, rail company Southern is working with Brighton and Hove Buses and Metrobus to introduce multi-modal, pay-as-you go ITSO smartcard ticketing which will enable passengers to easily switch between bus and rail modes. A pilot will be launched later this year between Brighton and Seaford.
A Go-Ahead spokesman said: “We are fully committed to rolling out smartcard technology. Smartcards have the potential to revolutionise passengers’ ease of service use and encourage public transport use.”
April 2011
