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News Archive
ITSO-compliant schemes to take off in Wales and Cheshire More than 1700 ITSO security access modules (ISAMs) from Ecebs will be delivered to transport consortia in South East Wales, North Wales and Cheshire as local authorities in those regions switch to transport smart card schemes compliant with ITSO - the 'industry standard' for interoperable transport solutions. Says Ian Robinson, principal consultant at MVA*, the advising body and managing consultant for the Welsh schemes, which are fully funded by the Welsh Assembly: "We plan to implement all the ITSO schemes in which we are involved in the latter part of 2004 using the ISAMs and we are working closely with Ecebs and ITSO to deploy them." Mel Pashley, Business Development Manager at Ecebs, adds: "This order is another significant milestone in the adoption of ITSO across the UK. The ISAM, in effect a 4-megabyte smart card, is a tremendous implementation of Ecebs' core technology and is the key enabler of the highly secure ITSO framework. Ecebs is delighted to be working with transport experts such as MVA in order to exploit this exciting technology in the implementation of ITSO-based schemes." The South East Wales Transport Alliance (Sewta), a consortium of 10 local authorities , is implementing an ITSO-compliant transport system throughout the region following a pilot project in Caerphilly. Caerphilly Council is the lead authority for the project. So far, over 165,000 smart cards have been issued to eligible residents of six of the local authorities - a further 65,000 will shortly be issued to residents of the other four authorities in the consortium. Says Huw Morgan, principal passenger transport officer for Caerphilly: "The Welsh Assembly Government has advocated that transport schemes throughout Wales should move towards ITSO. This is particularly important for free travel because we need to have an accurate recording of the journeys being made and smart cards are the ideal way to do this; they give us a far better audit trail than was possible before." Ian Robinson adds: "Not only does ITSO ensure ultimate interoperability, but it is essential for concessionary travel schemes and provides the flexibility for authorities to move on to commercial smart card schemes and a range of other possibilities." In North Wales, the TAITH consortium of six authorities is about to introduce a concessionary smart card scheme and Cheshire County Council is working with TAITH to ensure that the cross-boundary interaction they have with their vehicles runs as smoothly as possible and that true interoperability is achieved. Cheshire's award-winning interoperable scheme is uniquely commercially based. Project Officer Helen Mitchell says: "Once we've moved to ITSO we will have all the infrastructure in place to consider expansion of the scheme, both geographically and to other transport applications. Co-ordinating the move to ITSO with TAITH is essential because we have several buses that run between Wales and Cheshire and we need to maintain full interoperability on those routes." In addition, smart cards will reduce the possibility of fraud and enable payments to transport operators to be more accurate because they will be based on reliable, up-to-date data. While the transport operators are currently looking into which ticketing machines they are to install on their buses, because the schemes are ITSO-compliant the result will be a fully functioning system no matter which suppliers' equipment is chosen. Says Ian Robinson: "We want to demonstrate that interoperability has real benefits for public transport and these schemes show commitment to ITSO as a deliverable specification. Clearly, without components like the Ecebs ISAMs, these schemes would not be possible." *MVA is a multi-disciplinary transport consultancy which advises a wide range of clients including central and local government, private bodies, operators and other organisations involved in the planning and delivery of public transport schemes.
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