Integration issues are threatening the delivery of smartcards as the key technology legacy for the UK’s transport system after the London 2012 Olympics.

Experts are warning that the lack of an organisation to supervise the delivery of separate smartcard systems may lead to a situation where some parts of the country will have their own schemes up and running ahead of the Games, but poor integration will mean event visitors need a mix of different paper tickets and smartcards to travel across the UK.

“The question is where the leadership should come from,” said Roger Willison-Gray, business development director for public transport at Logica. “Despite the fact that some organisations will offer fully functioning schemes by 2012, there should be a forum in place to steer the community, as there is a vacuum caused by the lack of a general plan.”

It takes an average of two years to put a smart ticketing scheme in place, said Willison-Gray, so organisations that are lagging behind in their smartcard implementations will need to give a sharper focus to project delivery during 2009.

“Smart ticketing has a huge potential to increase mobility, cut journey times and improve public infrastructure. The Olympics are an obvious goal to work towards,” he said.

Implementation of smartcard schemes based on the national Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation (ITSO) standard are currently underway in areas such as the West Midlands, South Yorkshire and Manchester. In the capital, Transport for London (TfL) is replacing Oyster card readers to accept ITSO passes and aims to complete the DFT-financed replacement by 2010-11.

Earlier this year, a Commons Transport Committee report on ticketing and concessionary travel said that ministers must not force ITSO onto the London Oyster system as this could discourage commuters’ reliance on the smartcards and cause integration problems.

In response to the report, the Department for Transport said it is “essential” that the government-backed standard is in place for passengers using public transport to travel to, from, or through London, but said that proper trials are imperative to prevent any loss of operational efficiency or customer confidence.

“We need to make sure that the national ITSO smartcard [standard] will work effectively in London, which we aim to achieve by adding ITSO interoperability to the Oyster network,” said the department.

Train operators have smartcards incorporated in their franchise agreements and will need to deliver the infrastructure to read ITSO-based cards, but bus companies are still hesitant about investing in smart ticketing.

“The situation is somewhat stagnant with bus operators, as any financial payback is relatively intangible,” said Willison-Gray.

Stagecoach Group is working on various smartcard schemes in Scotland and England and Go-Ahead is also working on replacing paper tickets by smartcards and similar functions accessible using mobile phones at its bus fleet in the West Midlands.

Which system will be just the ticket for tomorrow’s travellers?

The convergence of different technologies is a challenging aspect of the delivery of an interoperable smartcard platform to businesses and local authorities.

The Department for Transport (DfT) has mandated use of the ITSO standard for all free passes issued under the Concessionary Bus Travel Act, but bus operators are not required to have the necessary onboard card-reading equipment until 2010, when the standard will be enforced.

In the meantime, alternatives being considered include mobile ticketing and the DfT is carrying out hardware tests using ITSO-compliant technology. Bus operators are also carrying out trials, such as Arriva and its mobile ticketing project, which allows passengers to pre-purchase barcode-style tickets through their mobile phone.

But widespread opinion across the industry suggests that while mobile ticketing is an appealing alternative to paper tickets, it is not yet commercially viable as the technology is costly and suitable mobile handsets are not widely available in the UK.

Another option is further integration of tickets with bank cards, as used in the OnePulse partnership between Transport for London (TfL) and Barclaycard, which offers Oyster, credit and cashless functions in one card. “It would be much more effective for TfL to not have to mess around with ITSO integration and just offer the Oyster function to banks. By 2012, it could be possible that all cards issued by banks to their customers will have the ticketing function incorporated,” said smartcard expert David Birch.

“There are strong synergies proved by the Barclaycard example, but there are serious co-ordination issues between transport companies, banks and local authorities. This means that despite the benefits that technology convergence can bring, those solutions may come later than expected.”