A very public affair: Ian Woodroofe, commercial and marketing director of Transport & Energy activities at Thales, discusses deployment in The Netherlands of a national contactless smart card system that will work across all modes of transport

摘要

Over recent years, the East West Consortium, of which Thales is a key member, has been working on the deployment of a national smart card for the entire Dutch public transport network. It will enable the public to travel on any mode of transport using a single contactless ticket. The consortium has supplied all the security equipment for the project, such as access gates at the train stations, the ticket vending machines and card readers. In addition, the consortium has installed all the back-end structures that manage the collection of passenger travel data and the clearing and settlement of all transactions. The first pilot of this technology is currently under way in Rotterdam, with nationwide roll out of the smart card scheme expected in 2007.