Baker to debate future of smartcards at 2020 event

Transport Minister Norman Baker has told DfT officials that he wants to see a nationwide public transport ticketing smartcard available to the public “in a few years”. In an interview with a mass market tabloid newspaper (see p10), Baker said: “The aim is that you get one smartcard ticket that enables you to use it whether you are in Bristol on the bus, on the Tube in London or in Newcastle on the Metro. If you give people one card, they’ll have more of a psychological incentive and more confidence to make journeys… It won’t be overnight but I’ve asked my officials to bring forward the old target date of 2020 to within a few years.”

Baker will be the keynote speaker at the LTT-sponsored Travel2020 conference in London on September 29-30. Conference places and attendance at the associated exhibition can be booked at www.travel2020.co.uk