Skip to main content

UK’s Southern Railway trials smartcard

A smartcard trial on Southern Railway has been officially launched by the UK transport minister, Norman Baker. ‘The Key’ offers rail passengers a quick and simple alternative to paper tickets and sees the installation of Vix smartcard platform validator units on the Coastway East service at stations between Brighton and Seaford.
March 23, 2012 Read time: 1 min
A smartcard trial on Southern Railway has been officially launched by the UK transport minister, Norman Baker. ‘The Key’ offers rail passengers a quick and simple alternative to paper tickets and sees the installation of Vix smartcard platform validator units on the Coastway East service at stations between Brighton and Seaford. These units will enable passengers to use smartcards to ‘tap and go’ for a range of journeys and ticket types, including popular season passes. Around 100 passengers will take part in the trial which is expected to be expanded in the near future.

Related Content

  • September 26, 2014
    Cubic unlocks ‘the key’ to Southern Railway
    The UK’s Southern Railway has extended the use of its ‘the key’ smartcard across the entire Oyster network in London. Passengers on the Southern rail franchise can now use the single smart card from most stations to travel by rail, bus and Tube across the capital. Supplied by Cubic Transportation Systems, ‘the key’ was first trialled in November 2011 on Southern’s Brighton to Seaford line. It was subsequently rolled out across most of their network for journeys outside the Oyster network and those termin
  • March 22, 2012
    Smartcard scheme expanded in UK
    East Midlands Trains in the UK, part of the transport operator Stagecoach Group which operates trains and buses throughout the UK, is expanding its smartcard scheme that will allows rail users to purchase and store rail season tickets on a re-usable electronic smart card instead of using traditional paper tickets. The programme is operating under the UK government’s ITSO smartcard scheme for interoperable transport.
  • September 2, 2013
    Cash injection to deliver smart card technology to UK rail passengers
    The UK government is investing US$4.4 million into a trial of paperless ticketing as it starts its multi-million pound push to deliver smart card technology to rail passengers across the south east, Transport Minister Norman Baker has announced. Train operator c2c, which operates between London and the Essex coast, will upgrade ticketing systems at all of its stations outside London, paving the way for passengers to start using smart cards in the region. This will be rolled out on services outside London fr
  • January 31, 2014
    Smartcard ticketing award for Cubic
    Cubic Transportation Systems has been recognised for its work with the UK’s Southern Railway in providing the ITSO travel card for commuters on the London to Brighton route with the award of the Best Smartcard Ticketing Service provider at the 2014 MasterCard Transport Ticketing Awards. The card enables passengers to “touch in” and “touch out” at 30 major Southern stations outside London, including Brighton and Gatwick Airport. In addition, Southern Railway customers can also use the gate terminals at Tr