ITSO gets ready for the big time – but has it been worth the wait?

ITSO-compatible transport ticketing smartcards are, finally, spreading rapidly across the UK, but their slow rise to prominence has coincided with the arrival of technologies such as smartphones and contactless bankcards, which are well capable of handling ticketing functions, so has ITSO left things too late? CEO Michael Leach is convinced that it hasn’t, as he explains to Rik Thomas

Rik Thomas

29 July 2011

Michael Leach, ITSO CEO, is currently overseeing reinvention of the organisation as a demonstration and testing centre of excellence for smart ticketing technology for its supplier, operator and local authority members

Last year there were only two pilot ITSO smartcard schemes in operation in England, including one in Cheshire, but ITSO says that three of the big five bus operators (National Express, Go-Ahead and Stagecoach) should have rolled out the technology nationwide by the end of the year

ITSO, THE organisation responsible for defining and developing the UK-wide technical specification for smart ticketing, has been in existence for over a decade now and yet it is only today that ITSO-compatible public transport ticketing is on the verge of becoming widespread. Furthermore, the length of time it has taken ITSO to ‘spread the word’ about the advantages of integrated smartcard ticketing has led some commentators to suggest that the organisation’s time has come...