Wales moves towards introducing a national e-purse in 2014

THE successful launch of Cardiff Bus’s ‘iff’ card in October 2010 was another major step towards an ITSO-compliant national entitlement card for Wales.

The ‘iff’ scheme was an ambitious project for the 230-bus fleet which is owned by Cardiff Council but independently run.
As the principal bus operator in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, Cardiff Bus already had 80 per cent of the market, totalling some 28 million passengers a year, with 40 per cent pre-purchasing travel on existing schemes and 32 per cent using concessionary passes.

Almost 100 per cent of entitled people in Wales already had smart concessionary cards because the Welsh Assembly Government funded the replacement of 600,000 cards in the first phase of the national entitlement card rollout starting in July 2009.

The government also commissioned an all-Wales back office system which involved migrating 22 existing local authority databases into one central card management system linked to a data management system (AMS/HOPS) provided by Applied Card Technologies Ltd (ACT).

It was then a question of installing 2,500 electronic ticket machines in Wales’ bus fleet, involving nearly 100 different operators. This was virtually 100 per cent achieved by summer 2010.

The larger operators developed their own back office revenue management systems, while smaller bus operators send their data to depot systems (managed by local authorities) which feed in to the national system (HOPS).

The Cardiff Bus ‘iff’ smart card scheme went live in October 2010 with prominent marketing through bus and other advertising. All 118,000 homes in the area were sent information and the first 30,000 cards already had £3 loaded on them. The ‘iff’ card is pre-loaded with credit which can then be topped up on bus or at the travel centre and used as a pay as you go or season ticket.

To date, more than 35,000 ‘iff’ cards have been issued and feedback is that customers are very pleased with the scheme.
From December 2010, the Cardiff Iff smartcard and Newport Bus Passport smartcards were able to be read on the 350 buses of both companies. Both schemes comply with the ITSO Specification so it was a relatively simple task to make them interoperable.

Viv Collins, the Welsh Assembly Project Manager, said: “This has been a major step forward towards our aim of having an entitlement card that works on Welsh and cross-border bus and rail services by 2014.

“Cardiff Bus expect to make savings by replacing the costly direct debit scheme for season tickets and reducing fraudulent use of concessionary passes. It is so much easier for passengers to use their electronic purses rather than be scrambling for the correct change each time they board a bus.

“But the ITSO-backed system offers us much wider possibilities than just ticketing. Cardiff Bus will be able to use the information collected to give its customers a better service.

“For example, Cardiff Bus already gives passengers live information through Twitter and Facebook, but is now working on a system of sending customers service updates by text or email if there are problems due to congestion or bad weather.

“In the near future Cardiff Bus will expand the range of products they issue using smartcards to include all their period passes* and scholars tickets.

“Looking forward, the Welsh Assembly - with support from advisors MVA Consultancy - are working up plans to develop and introduce a national e-purse that will be accepted by bus and rail operators throughout Wales by 2014. A number of pilot implementations will take place during 2011 as a precursor to this.

“We are also working closely with other bus operators who are interested in developing commercial products on the ITSO platform in a similar manner to Cardiff Bus and Newport Transport.

“This will demonstrate the cost effectiveness of the investment made by the Welsh Assembly Government in the ITSO infrastructure and its ongoing commitment to using that as part of its strategy to reduce car use and encourage sustainable transport in Wales.”

The Welsh Assembly Government is moving towards an ITSO, all-Wales entitlement card which will embrace rail and bus journeys.

* a period pass is a bus pass issued for a fixed period, such as monthly or seasonal, usually also for a fixed area of travel.