SMART CARDS to pay fares across a range of public transport services in Dublin will become available from early next year. That is according to the latest timetable for the implementation of the €55 million integrated ticketing project.
The roll-out of integrated ticketing will start with a smart card which can be used on Luas and Dublin Bus services and is to be fully in place by the middle of next year. The services of Irish Rail, private bus operators and Bus Éireann will be added by the end of the year.
Integrated smart cards will first be offered to holders of annual tickets, then monthly tickets and pay- as-you-go customers. The vast majority of the 250,000 customers expected to be signed up by the end of next year will be pay-as- you-go.
The back office technology which divides the revenue between transport providers was supplied by IBM, with Hewlett-Packard operating systems.
Tim Gaston of the Integrated Ticketing Project Office said similar systems in London, Paris and Belfast had all been rolled out incrementally.
“It is taking longer to get to the final delivery day than we had all hoped, but good progress has been made.”
The first smart card was launched by then minister for transport Séamus Brennan in April 2004, with total integration promised by 2005.
