System allows for easy payments and fast boarding processes
A step towards passenger and driver safety in trying times and a means for faster boarding: INIT has devised a contactless ticketing system for Nottingham’s three public transport providers Nottingham City Transport (NCT), CT4N and Nottingham Trams Ltd. (NET Trams). “Nottingham Contactless” is the first multi-operator ticketing system in the United Kingdom outside London.
NCT’s passengers can now pay contactless for their tickets on the buses. The City Council’s CT4N buses will follow later in 2020, followed by NET Trams in early 2021. In order to deliver the new system, the three public transport companies that make up the “Nottingham Contactless” partnership received upgrades of their integrated on-board computers and/or validators.
In addition, they share a multi-client back office application. “Nottingham Contactless” replicates the existing ITSO-based, pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solution with a multi-operator capping scheme for EMV payments as well as mobile payments via Apple Pay® or Google PayTM. Besides Nottingham’s city-wide smartcard (the Robin Hood card), passengers now have a new cashless payment method for adult pay-as-you-go travel. It allows them to pay for journeys with their bank or credit card or with their smart phone/smart watch – with daily fare capping.
High customer satisfaction during testing phase
Paying contactless is quick and easy. Passengers simply tap their card or smart device on the PROXmobil3 passenger terminal installed in the vehicles and wait for the green light to indicate that their payment has been accepted. Later they can see all their journeys and transactions at a glance on the “Nottingham Contactless” homepage. The system has been extensively tested to ensure that everything would go according to plan. It was trialled for a month prior to full launch by 600 testers, gaining an impressive 96% satisfaction score.
Fully accredited to the latest specifications
The system is fully hosted by INIT and is entirely accredited to the latest Visa and Mastercard transit specifications for contactless card payments, based on the Mass Transit Transaction Model (MTT). It also supports payment aggregation, deny listing and debt recovery which run in the background. The contactless payment system complements the range of INIT products already in use in Nottingham: The Intermodal Transport Control System MOBILE-ITCS with Automatic Vehicle Location and Real-Time Passenger Information has been a mainstay of the local public transport system since 2010 when it was introduced by NCT.
Follow-up to successful contactless ticketing system in Birmingham
“Nottingham Contactless” is another important step for contactless systems implemented by INIT. In 2019, Birmingham’s National Express West Midlands (NXWM) introduced contactless payments in their buses. They have proven to be a tremendous success as more than three million contactless payments were made by passengers in the first year following implementation.
As Jens Mullak, managing director of Nottingham-based INIT Ltd. explains, the new ticketing system is proving to be very helpful for passengers and drivers during the Coronavirus pandemic: “Cashless payments have been increasingly popular in recent years, and the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this shift away from traditional ticketing. The new system will mean safer, quicker boarding and an improved fare structure for users of the service, and also helps the operator make savings by reducing cash handling costs.”
Source: INIT
05.11.2020
