Skip to main content

Vix enables UK first for Stagecoach bus passengers

A new NFC Phone application developed by Vix is enabling a UK first for Stagecoach bus passengers in Cambridge. The innovative trial, which could lead to a nationwide roll out across select bus and rail services next year, is enabling the small cross section of participating bus users to receive, store and validate their bus tickets using their mobile phone.
June 25, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
RSSA new NFC Phone application developed by Vix is enabling a UK first for 805 Stagecoach bus passengers in Cambridge. The innovative trial, which could lead to a nationwide roll out across select bus and rail services next year, is enabling the small cross section of participating bus users to receive, store and validate their bus tickets using their mobile phone.

The pilot marks the first time that NFC versions of 3836 ITSO standard tickets have been commercially operated, with the trial contributing to the UK government’s vision to enable most public transport journeys to be undertaken using smart ticketing by December 2014.

The Vix NFC phone application enables a virtual card to be loaded onto a smart phone to be used for travel by tagging the phone against an electronic ticket machine as if it were a physical smart card. Additionally, the transport user is able to view the details of the ITSO transit products loaded onto their phone using its display, allowing them to see at any time the status of their transit products purchased.

“Smart phones are playing an increasingly important role in helping people manage their busy lifestyles and are already used across many areas of life,” says 256 Stagecoach Group finance director, Martin Griffiths. “We believe this technology can also make public transport easier and more convenient to use. Once this trial is complete, we will carry out a review of the findings and assess the potential to expand the scheme further for our passengers.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • NFC Forum and APTA sign collaboration agreement
    February 18, 2016
    The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) and the NFC Forum have signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will enable the two organisations to jointly educate the industry on near field communication (NFC) technologies supporting the needs of public transportation operators. The use of NFC for public transit ticketing is growing. Recently, New York State announced a plan to support NFC payments for the 11-million-user Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the UK Cards Asso
  • New riders get onboard the metabustrip
    October 5, 2016
    Bus travel booking is moving into the digital age as David Crawford discovers. A global surge in demand for intercity bus travel is fuelling new initiatives to make it easier for passengers to access information and book via the web by, fo example, using multi-sourced metasearch engines
  • Cubic wins contract to mobilize LA Metro TAP Fare Payment System
    January 4, 2018
    Cubic Transportation Systems has been awarded a contract by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Authority (LA Metro), to deliver an integrated traveller app in support of the TAP regional contactless fare system. It is designed with the intention of allowing users to make a fare purchase, use their mobile device as a TAP card and complete their journey using transit, bikeshare, or other multimodal programs. It will also provide them with commute information. TAP links 24 transit agencies across the Los
  • Sydney completes transition to ticketless public transport
    August 12, 2016
    Sydney, Australia, has retired its last paper public transport tickets and completed the transition to the Cubic-designed Opal smart card ticketing system. Launched in December 2012, the Opal card system, which was designed, installed and operated by Cubic, is now used for 95 percent of all public transport trips. To date, customers have taken 800 million trips and more than 7.5 million cards have been issued. Starting this month, the old-style paper tickets will no longer be sold or accepted, markin