"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 25 Jun 2014 23:00:36 +0100, "
wrote:

What are the plans for expanding contactless into other cities or
further afield on NR?

I think the Rail Delivery Group are considering the technology but
beyond that I don't know. I am not aware that any of the city regions
are considering contactless bank cards - they're all struggling to get
ITSO based schemes into service.

The only other scheme was First Group's move into smartcards for its
buses - that scheme was based on bank card acceptance first plus ITSO
for concessionary tickets. However progress has been very slow and I
don't know if they even have a trial area operating.

What is odd is that the technology should be very straightforward
given there are known standards and a competitive supplier base.


But the savings are not there for a rural bus service.

Unless you have flat fares, you either have to have a card on/card off
system (which I suspect will drive punters away from using it) or you still
have the "negotiate the correct fare with the driver" part of the
transaction. If you still have that wasted 45 seconds in the transaction
the 2 second saving made from paying by contactless card is not worth having

tim