Confidex Wins Multi-Year High Volume ITSO Smart Ticketing Contract for Glasgow Subway

Confidex has been selected by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), which owns and operates the Glasgow Subway, to supply a large volume of contactless ITSO smart tickets to replace magnetic stripe tickets currently in use across the underground system. The tickets will be encoded and issued from vending machines, parking machines and ticket offices.

Confidex offers a wide range of contactless fare media dedicated to occasional and seasonal users and has supplied more than 350 million contactless tickets to operators worldwide. In Glasgow, UK, Confidex has been selected by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) to supply a high volume of contactless ITSO smart tickets.

“We recognised SPT’s strong commitment to introduce smart ticketing and realized they needed an international supplier who could deliver a high quality smart ticket to specification and for a competitive price,” Kevin Farquharson from Smartran, Confidex’s partner in the UK, said. “Low cost media has been part of the ITSO (national standard for smart ticketing in UK) specification from the outset, but has received limited attention as operators and authorities concentrated on concessions and period passes. In contrast many schemes in Europe, North America and across the world rely on low cost smart tickets to reduce fraud and speed passengers through their networks. We worked with Confidex to ensure they met or exceeded all of SPT’s expectations.”

“Confidex is proud to be the first to introduce high volumes of contactless paper ticket into the UK” comments Pierre Chadebech, Confidex’s business development director, Person ID. “Glasgow is the culmination of an outstanding year for the Company, highlighted by the award of 20 new schemes.”

As more UK schemes and operators look at how they maximize the business and operational benefits of smart ticketing, use of low-cost smart tickets is expected to increase.

“A key part of SPT’s Subway modernization work is a move away from traditional paper tickets to a smartcard system and we intend to roll out the technology across our 15 stations later this year,” SPT assistant chief executive Eric Stewart said. “After holding a competitive tender Confidex was selected on the basis of price, quality and delivery capability and the ability to achieve ITSO certification which is essential to provide the inter-operability function necessary for passengers to enjoy seamless travel. That starts in our Subway system and in due course will be available on bus, train, and ferry services.”