12.03.19
Delivering innovation through collaboration with Rambus
Source: RTM Feb/March 2019
Russell McCullagh, vice president and general manager of ticketing at Rambus, tells more on the company’s collaboration with Worldline to advance opportunities in the smart-ticketing sector.
In January, Rambus announced the expansion of a collaboration with Worldline to deliver innovation into UK rail. Rambus is a key provider of ITSO-based smart ticketing solutions for public transport across the UK and Worldline, Europe’s largest payments company, provides solutions to many UK rail franchises. There was a natural synergy between both companies’ transport offerings, so with the integration of Rambus remote ticket download software, Worldline can now deliver ITSO-based smart tickets to customer smartcards with their @Station and Mobile Ticket Issuing Service (MTIS), providing passengers with a reliable and more convenient ticketing experience.
Passengers can now directly benefit from this leading technology for issuing smart tickets which lays the foundation for contactless rail journeys. This next-generation ticketing solution will greatly enhance access for customers who will be able to collect tickets at station desks and on train, directly from staff. We believe this will help drive wider adoption of smart ticketing for the travelling public as the technology behind the solution has been successfully deployed across other modes of transport.
Removing paper to increase convenience
One of our key drivers is to help train operating companies enable their customers to make the switch from paper to smartcard-based tickets. However, ease of access to those smart tickets and the reliability of the technology that sits behind them to ensure customers have confidence when using a smart ticket is essential. By integrating our technology with Worldline, we will deliver that consistent user experience for rail customers.
As an example: if a passenger has pre-purchased a smart ticket product, they can collect this from a station desk using the Worldline @Station tablet by simply holding their smartcard against the tablet. Rambus’ remote ticket download software then securely delivers that smart ticket from the cloud using the tablet’s Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.
Alternatively, a passenger can present their smartcard on-train to a conductor who will hold the smartcard against the Worldline MTIS handheld terminal. The smart ticket product can then be verified or, if pre-purchased, can be downloaded onto the smartcard. This may sound very straightforward, and essential from a customer perspective, but due to the complexities of systems and rules, it requires significant expertise from both Rambus and Worldline to deliver.
Longer term, a key goal for the rail industry is to offer customers a truly interoperable ticketing experience so they won’t need multiple accounts or different smartcards or devices based on which rail company they are travelling with. The Rambus and Worldline solution supports integrated and interoperable ticketing, making it a compelling offering capable of supporting such a goal.
With any innovation in the rail industry, the passenger must be the driving factor in development. Smart ticketing should be viewed as the building block by which rail companies can deliver more for their customers. By moving more passengers from paper to smart, rail operators will have access to improved travel data which can be harnessed to deliver improved services and offer more flexible ticket products based on how people use their services.
Together, Rambus and Worldline can help drive increased adoption of smart ticketing through the deployment of this integrated solution for the benefit of rail operators and their customers.
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