Step forward in the roadmap of a future ITSO Specification

The ITSO Specification is a vital component to continue to deliver smart, integrated and seamless ticketing across the UK, and to better meet the needs of operating members’ ticketing schemes. In May, ITSO members came together for business and technical workshops centred on a future release of the Specification, which will meet the changing needs of technology and passengers alike.

There has been real appetite amongst the membership to move forward with this piece of work, delivering a clear vision of what the future ITSO Specification will look like. The workshops gave a clear understanding of issues currently facing members and how these concerns can be addressed, while also exploiting future opportunities.

Some of the most common themes included:

• Overwhelming support for an Implementation Guide and fixed ITSO Specification release dates going forward
• Operators need confidence that certified devices will be interoperable
• The requirement for an Account Based Ticketing product to be defined  
• More media options should be available, including larger capacity disposable low-cost media types

These are some of the key issues facing our members and our focus is now on prioritising those that will make the biggest difference and cause the least impact on existing schemes and infrastructure.

This week, members received a summary report of the key items for the ITSO Specification update and are asked to prioritise them in order of the significance to their organisation, along with providing a more detailed business case and justification for this change/addition.

The next steps will be to review and publish these results before establishing Sponsor and Business cases and seeking approval from the Department for Transport.

It is the views of our members that will steer the future of the ITSO Specification, and we truly value the feedback of all who are taking part in this process.