Statutory Function 2 (SF2)

To advise the Scottish Ministers in relation to their functions insofar as they relate to the national technological standard for smart ticketing.

Benchmark the as-is situation for smart ticketing in Scotland in relation to technological standards used and compare this with the standards used within the rest of the UK

Section 4. of the Benchmarking Review as introduced in SF1 summarises the Scottish public transport landscape in terms of the technological standards used for its as-is ticketing arrangements. It details these for the individual schemes within Scotland and compares these with seven representative schemes throughout the UK to review objectively against the outcomes and core principles given above. It acknowledges that for operators, commercial factors and passenger numbers are normally considered to be ‘success’ factors for a ticketing scheme.

The report also assesses Scotland’s existing single and multi-operator ticketing schemes, which are provided at an operator level such as First’s mTicket, or geographically around the four city regions; Aberdeen (Grasshopper, First TOTO), Dundee (ABC and One-Ticket), Edinburgh (One-Ticket, Ridacard, TapTapCap) and Glasgow (Tripper, ZoneCard, first TOTO), and looks at the technology and processes behind the Transport Scotland administered concessionary scheme for under 22s, over 60s and some disabled people.

The version of this report which was laid before Scottish Ministers included a complex diagram of mode options. This has been removed and replaced with the following text for this web accessible version. The ‘Baselining Report’ includes a graphical representation of the delivery model of select schemes from outside of Scotland. At the more simple end of the spectrum, the visualisation shows single supplier multi-model systems, such as Translink (single back office for all modes) and Solent (Barcode solution associated with a journey planning facility), moving towards more complex multi supplier multi-modal systems (TfL cEMV overlaid on Oyster and Cornwall’s separate operator solutions that share a back office and payment supplier). At the most complex end of the scale, the integrated modal or operators’ systems, includes Nexus which uses an ITSO system with cEMV and ABT overlaid, and TfWM which uses a broker system.

The report confirms the fragmented nature of ticketing in Scotland, which varies between modes, operators, and even within individual operators over their range of services. In particular, there are different commercial suppliers of the necessary technology and software required to provide tickets, and the use of each varies by mode, region, and operator.

Review international best practice application of technological standards for smart ticketing to identify any transferable lessons

To complement the comparison of Scottish technological standards with those applied elsewhere within the UK, the Benchmarking Review also reviews international best practice as illustrated by four representative schemes: Cal-ITP (California, United States), Myki (Melbourne, Australia), Metrolinx (Toronto, Canada), and Translink (Netherlands). 

These four schemes were chosen to review key lessons learned, any best practice design or implementation approaches, and any new or novel approach to delivery or capabilities worthy of note. This is detailed within Section 7 of the Benchmarking Review.

Review the smart ticketing technological standard(s) required to deliver the Fair Fares Review, Climate Change Action policy, and the forthcoming refreshed Smart Delivery Strategy actions

In addition to the work undertaken in delivering the Benchmarking Review as detailed in SF1 Objective 1, the NSTAB has also engaged directly with UK and International technological standards organisations and Suppliers to review experiences and identify lessons learned, which will be applicable to the delivery of the Fair Fares Review, Climate Change Action Policy and the Smart Delivery Strategy.

In total, throughout 2024, NSTAB hosted seven presentations on the following technological standards:

• Account-Based Ticketing (ABT) solutions from leading providers Masabi, Unicard, and Littlepay.
• Contactless EMV (cEMV) developments from Project Coral – the body supported by the DfT for procuring an open, multi-operator cEMV payment back-office broker system for bus travel. This has led to a specific Project Coral workstream (below).
• Mobile Ticketing systems, with contributions from iBlocks and Fairtiq on mobile pay-as-you-go (PAYG) systems in the UK and Europe.
• ITSO Smart Ticketing developments from the CEO of ITSO Ltd.
• The NSTAB has also had extensive engagement with the team at Project Coral and its work on developing an option for a national EMV Broker Solution.

Project Coral National EMV Broker Solution

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) through Transport for West Midlands ('TfWM'), and in partnership with Project Coral, Midlands Connect and the DfT are aiming to progress and introduce a contactless ticketing solution for public transport users on bus and tram in England, initially within the West Midlands region.

The system will use cEMV technology, allowing passengers to ‘tap’ using a bank card, or electronic bank card, to gain access to travel. Payments have a defined ‘cap’ and will allow users to obtain the best price/best value single journey tickets for their travel pattern that day.

Project Coral was formed in 2019 and is a collaborative private sector led Steering Board comprised of FirstGroup PLC, Arriva UK Bus Ltd, Stagecoach Services Ltd, The Go-Ahead Group Ltd, National Express Ltd and Rotala PLC. Its initial purpose is to promote an alternative solution to using a single ‘back office’ product, allowing operators to retain their individual systems, but have shared transactions handled via a third party ‘broker service’ which effectively acts as go between.

The procurement for this project is nearing conclusion at an estimated maximum contract value of circa £16.7m over five years. Whilst initially this will only cover the West Midlands area, Project Coral are actively promoting that their ‘broker solution’ could be used across England, Wales & Scotland and have been registering interest from English Local Authorities for the service to be provided to the Authority at no charge.

The Board has received a presentation from Project Coral and have formally noted their interest in the project. The Board has arranged to be updated on the progress of the project in order to consider the use of a broker type solution more fully. Subsequent to registering their interest in the project, the Board has joined the Integrated Ticketing Advisory Forum (ITAF), the entity responsible for Project Coral’s national broker platform for contactless bank card payments on buses.

This collated knowledge and the work undertaken in the Benchmarking Review, is being used as the basis for an NSTAB Workshop in May 2025, to develop a Standards & Technical Advisory Report for the Scottish Ministers, which will detail core actions required to deliver the requirements of the Fair Fares Review, Climate Change Action Policy and the Smart Delivery Strategy. This Standards & Technical Advisory Report is expected to be submitted during summer 2025.

Identify opportunities and challenges related to standardising smart ticketing technology, including customer experience, that will help to deliver an integrated multi-modal ABT style smart ticketing system

In line with the response to SF2 Objective 3 above, the collated knowledge from the Benchmarking Review, together with Board Members Industry experience and the informative sessions with Suppliers and Standards bodies is being used as the basis for an NSTAB Workshop, to develop a Standards & Technical Advisory Report for the Scottish Ministers, which will detail core actions required to identify opportunities and challenges related to standardising smart ticketing technology, including customer experience, that will help to deliver an integrated multi-modal ABT style smart ticketing system. This Standards & Technical Advisory Report is expected to be submitted during summer 2025.