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

  • Network Rail launches digital strategy to improve travel experience
    May 14, 2018
    Network Rail will carry out a digital railway strategy to help ensure that all new UK trains and signalling are digital or digital ready from 2019. The upgrade is aimed at improving the speed, punctuality and safety of the service. New digital rail technology will be utilised with the intention of allowing trains to run closer together and provide more frequent services. In addition, passengers are expected to be provided with improved mobile and WiFi connectivity. Train drivers will receive real-time
  • Pilot shows how wi-fi data could improve London Underground journeys
    September 11, 2017
    Journeys on London Underground could be improved through Transport for London (TfL) harnessing wi-fi data to make more information available to customers as they move around London, new research has shown. The four-week TfL pilot, which ran between November and December last year, studied how depersonalised wi-fi connection data from customers' mobile devices could be used to better understand how people navigate the London Underground network, allowing TfL to improve the experience for customers.
  • Translink launches ticketing system for Glider bus network
    September 19, 2018
    Translink has unveiled its future ticketing system at the launch of the Glider bus rapid transit network in Belfast. The technology will allow riders with more flexible options to pay for journeys, the company says. Riders will be able to pay with cash, smartcard and contactless payment cards, mobile payments, online accounts and Translink smart cards. Flowbird developed the system and a back-office architecture called CloudFare. It is intended to allow administrators to monitor and control ticketing
  • Dubai metro - the world's longest automated rail system
    July 31, 2012
    David Crawford reviews the recent opening of Dubai's Red Line. The US$7.6bn Dubai Metro, the Phase I Red Line of which started partial operation in September 2009, will be the world's longest driverless rail system on its planned completion in 2011. With a total length of some 75km, it will then overtake the 68.7km Vancouver SkyTrain and be able to carry over 1.2 million passengers on a typical day.