From England: "Department of Transport unveils 'smart-card' national bus pass for older & disabled people."

This story originally appeared on PublicTechnology.net at this address: http://www.publictechnology.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=11565. That link no longer exists. Below is a copy of the original story.


Department for Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly yesterday unveiled a new smart-card pass that will give older and disabled people free off-peak bus travel across England from 1st April, 2008.


Currently, people aged 60 and over and eligible disabled people are entitled to free off-peak bus travel within their own local authority area. But from April 2008 the Government will invest up to an extra £250m each year to extend the scheme to include off-peak local bus travel anywhere in England.



The new passes will also incorporate ITSO 'smartcard' technology to boost the roll out of 'smart ticketing'. This will help minimise fraud and ensure that the number of journeys made by pass-holders are accurately recorded for reimbursement purposes between local authorities and bus operators. In areas where buses are not yet fitted with smartcard readers the cards can still be shown to the driver as a traditional 'flash' card upon boarding.



Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly said:


 "We have already seen how popular concessionary fares are. Bus use in England rose by 4% in the year after we introduced free, off-peak local travel. Now we are extending their entitlement, millions of older and disabled people will be able to use their passes while visiting friends and family anywhere in England as well as to access local services."



"We hope that allowing eligible passengers to use their passes across local boundaries will continue to encourage even more people to get the most from the bus services available across the country."



"By introducing smartcard technology from the outset we are paving the way for full smart ticketing across the country. This would speed up boarding, cut fraud and open up the possibility of using the same pass to access a range of other local services such as libraries and leisure facilities.

"

Commenting on the scheme, Alan Burnett, senior policy officer at Help the Aged, said:


"Millions of older and disabled people rely on local bus services. From April, they will be able to save money when they cross local boundaries or visit friends and family in other parts of England."



The Passenger Transport Executive Group (PTEG) welcomed the decision to make the pass a smartcard. Neil Scales, director general of Merseytravel and PTEG spokesman on smartcards, said:



"Smartcard ticketing offers the prospect of greater convenience for passengers and lower administration costs for local authorities, operators and ultimately the taxpayer. "



"We look forward to working with the DfT and with bus operators to realise the full potential of the national concessionary smartcard-as a
precursor to much wider application of public transport smartcards in
the years to come."



Steven Salmon, director of policy development at the Confederation of Passenger Transport UK, said:


"Operators will be ready to welcome pass-holders from all over England from 1 April. The Government's decision to make the passes 'smart' could help authorities and operators to offer fast, friendly and efficient services for everyone."



Currently, people aged 60 and over and eligible disabled people in England are entitled to free off-peak bus travel within the local authority area in which they live. This full waiver of the fare, replacing the previous half fare entitlement, was introduced by the Government in April 2006.The concession applies between 9.30am and 11pm on weekdays, and all day weekends and bank holidays.



Some existing local concessionary travel schemes in England include travel into neighbouring local authorities, but provision varies across the country and could be discontinued at any time. The Concessionary Bus Travel Act 2007 makes it a statutory entitlement, for the first time, for eligible people to travel outside their local authority area, anywhere in England, for free, by local bus from 1 April 2008. The existing timings remain unchanged.



Local authorities are currently able to issue concessionary passes to their own design. These vary across England with some authorities already issuing ITSO smartcards with strong fraud prevention characteristics. At the other extreme some current passes have no photos and no expiry date. Because bus drivers across England next year will have to recognise the entitlement of any eligible pass holder, irrespective of which authority issued the pass, from 1 April 2008 all passes will have to conform to a specification set out in regulations. These will set out the physical design, including a new requirement that all passes must have photos and expiry dates, and also ensure that all passes are ITSO smartcards.



In London, Freedom Passes will be re-stickered with the new national concessionary travel logo so that they are recognisable across the country from April 2008. They will be fully re-issued to comply with the standard specification from 2010. Discussions are ongoing to convert the London Oyster system to accept ITSO smartcards.



Smartcards have a number of advantages over traditional paper-based passes. When used on smart readers, they are highly resistant to fraudulent replication. They can also help to speed up boarding, helping to reduce bus journey times. And in addition to use as concessionary travel passes, smartcards could be used for commercial ticketing on other transport services and additional services at local authorities' discretion, such as allowing access to leisure or library services.



ITSO is a national smartcard specification developed by industry and the Government. Using ITSO helps to ensure wide compatibility as the ITSO specification is protected by Crown Copyright and available to a wide range of users. ITSO-based smartcards are already being used for concessionary bus travel throughout Scotland and in some parts of England, and are being introduced on some parts of the rail network.



Concessionary travel is a devolved policy area. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland already operate their own schemes. The Concessionary Bus Travel Act 2007 includes a power to allow, via regulations in the future, for mutual recognition of concessionary bus passes across the UK, and the Government had initial discussions with the devolved administrations about the inclusion of this power last year.

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