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News > bakerbus on-board for National Travelcards Scheme

Published 07 January 2009

BAKERBUS ON-BOARD FOR NATIONAL TRAVELCARDS SCHEME
ELECTRONIC SMART CARD READERS IMPLEMENTED FOR CONCESSIONARY BUS PASSES


Bakerbus is one of the first bus companies in England to install ticket machines capable of accepting all the new English Concessionary Bus Passes. Working in partnership with Cheshire County Council, ticket machines for the entire Bakerbus fleet have been upgraded to read electronically, the latest design of travel passes, based on smart card technology.

The new passes incorporate a microchip and wireless aerial, enabling the driver to authenticate the pass and record the journey details. The information is then downloaded at the depot for recording purposes and to ensure the correct reimbursement of costs by the appropriate authority.

Concessionary travel passes are issued by every local authority in England. In future all passes will conform to a universal standard based on the ITSO (Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation) standard. Effectively this is a common design which has been adopted throughout the country.

"Although the national programme is for concessionary travel, Cheshire County Council and Bakerbus are keen to expand smartcard ticketing to include season tickets, pre-payment schemes and school travel," explains Colin Kennington, Principal Transport Officer for Cheshire County Council.
"Clearly it would be impossible for bus drivers to recognise passes issued by every Local Authority in England. The intention is that every bus in England will eventually be fitted with smartcard readers."

Commenting on the development, Phil Baker, managing director of Bakerbus said:
"We pride ourselves in being a progressive bus operator and we are delighted to be at the forefront of this initiative which has benefits for both the passenger and the bus operator by ensuring that passes are validated for the journey without disrupting the process of boarding passengers. Now we have the equipment in place, we look forward to introducing further smartcard ticketing facilities in due course."




Issued by Mike Ottewell
MJO PR Ltd for Bakers Coaches
Tel: 0845 883 3435