Wales travel cards now issued
8th September 2009
The Welsh Assembly Government awarded Applied Card Technologies (ACT) the prime contract to manage the build, integration, delivery and support of its national ITSO smart travel programme.
ACT is pleased to announce the successful completion of the card issuance project phase which has resulted in the roll-out of in excess of 650,000 smart concessionary bus passes across all 22 local authorities in Wales.
The Welsh Concessionary Travel Pass entitles all those aged 60+ and the disabled to free bus travel across Wales. All existing concessionary bus passes have now been replaced by smart cards delivered by ACT. All the old style passes became invalid after the 31st July 2009.
Working in tandem with the Welsh Assembly Government and each of the Welsh local authorities, ACT managed the import, validation and processing of the 22 local authority data sets into one consistent national customer management system. The concessionary card holder information and day to day contact is now maintained by each of the local authorities using the ACT Customer Management System (CMS).
ACT is continuing its work with the Welsh Assembly Government and bus operators to progress the roll out of ITSO enabled bus ticketing equipment to support the national programme. All ITSO travel transactions continue to be processed by the Wales national ITSO HOPS system provided and managed by ACT. The central CMS and HOPS systems will enable over 650,000 concessionary travellers to use some 2,500 buses across the whole of Wales and in some cases the smart card will be valid for cross border travel into England.
Gary Watts, Director ACT: ‘This is an important milestone achievement for the Wales transport ticket project and ACT is delighted to have been the lead supplier delivering such a large national project. The transition to ITSO enables the Welsh Assembly Government and all 22 local authorities to offer a more flexible transport system for its citizens, reducing costs, improving efficiency and offering travellers throughout Wales an improved travel experience.’
Jo Scott, for the Welsh Assembly Government: ‘We are delighted to have achieved this phase of the project, I would like to thank ACT and each local authority for the huge amount of hard work that has gone into achieving this project milestone. The successful execution of the 22 individual local authorities migrations have required us to work together to overcome a few unexpected challenges over the past year, but it is testimony to ACT’s commitment and resourcing for the project that we have successfully delivered this roll out. We look forward to completing the remaining project phases and to realising our vision for integrated, interoperable transport within Wales.’
