User:Mattdickinson/sandbox/contactless

Contactless smart cards are being progressively introduced to replace paper ticketing on the National Rail system of Britain. The first large scale adoption for transit in Britain has been the Transport for London Oystercard. This uses a proprietary encoding developed by Cubic Transportation Systems. Intially it was only available on the London Underground, but it has been progressively rolled out to National Rail services in and around Greater London.

The ITSO standard has been developed as a national standard to cover all types of public transport. It has been included as a requirement by the Department for Transport for all new rail franchises in the last few years. It is also the format that ENCTS concessionary passes are required to be issued in.

The Oystercard system is not compatible with ITSO at present. However, there is a project underway to make the Oystercard system compatible with ITSO. As of 14 November 2011, the acceptance position is:

¶ Only valid in combination with a paper single or return ticket