ALL CHANGE FOR TRAVEL TICKETS.Byline: By NEIL HODGSON Neil Hodgson (born November 20 1973 in Burnley, Lancashire) is a motorcycle racer who won the 2000 British Superbike championship and the 2003 Superbike World Industry Reporter THE end of paper train and bus tickets is nigh nigh adv. nigh·er, nigh·est 1. Near in time, place, or relationship: Evening draws nigh. 2. Nearly; almost: talked for nigh onto two hours. and within two years Merseyside commuters could be using smartcards. Merseytravel boss Neil NEIL Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited NEIL Network Engineering and Integration Lab Scales is keen to introduce the latest ticketing technology to the region. The director general and chief executive is also national chairman of the Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation ITSO - (former Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation) was founded in 1998 as a result of discussions between various UK Passenger Transport Authorities concerning the lack of suitable standards for inter-operable smartcard ticketing. , which is co-ordinating the latest developments in the sector. Smartcards can be loaded with different packages of credit for either bus travel, train, ferry, and even Mersey tunnel journeys. They can also be loaded with credit for small value transactions. Mr Scales said: "The technology is there to download To receive a file transmitted over a network. In any communications session, "download" means receive, and "upload" means send. The download/upload often implies a big/little scenario, in which data is being downloaded from the "big" server into the "little" user's computer. topping up from the internet. It's pretty exciting stuff." Unlike conventional cards that are swiped, travel smartcards would be touched against automatic readers at the start of a journey. Mobile phones or BlackBerry blackberry, name for several species of thorny plants of the genus Rubus of the family Rosaceae (rose family). See bramble. blackberry devices could also be touched against a reader. Mr Scales added: "We would like to be able to lead on this because all major cities are experimenting with smartcards." Virgin and Chiltern Trains are currently evaluating the use of barcode based tickets that can be read from mobile phone displays, but Mr Scales dismisses the system as "old technology." In April this year Mersey travel invested up to pounds 750,000 to increase its stake in Liverpool's Livesmart brand from 24.9% to 87%. Livesmart, part of Global Smart Media, provides discounts and offers with participating businesses for its card holders. Mr Scales revealed that tests could start soon: "You will see small pilot schemes, then moving out over the next two or three years." |
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