Contactless smart cards from G&D for public transport in Victoria

At the beginning of July 2005, the Premier of Victoria announced that the Victorian Transport Ticketing Authority (TTA) had decided to introduce a new, state-of-the-art ticketing system. The roll out is scheduled to begin in 2008.

The system will work with contactless smart cards being delivered by G&D Australasia. The new payment cards will provide a single ticketing system for all modes of public transportation, offering unique convenience to Victoria’s public transportation customers and significantly improving the customer experience.

The Kamco consortium, as winner of the complete ticketing solution contract, brings together four of the world’s leading transport and technology experts: Keane Australia for the technology backbone of the smartcard system, G&D for the contactless smartcards, Ascom for the fare collection equipment and the terminal management system, and ERG for the installation and maintenance of the fare collection equipment. Kamco won the US$370 million contract after a rigorous nine-month tender process.

Contactless smart cards are gaining momentum all over the world in transportation and ticketing projects because of their high convenience and cost effectiveness. The mature contactless technology allows users to pay transportation fares by just waving their cards over a reader device. Victoria’s TTA favored G&D as their exclusive smartcard supplier due to their proven expertise in smartcard production, logistics management and also their experience in contactless technology. Additionally, G&D had a very positive reference with the previously realized Queensland Transport ticketing solution.

For Victoria, the contactless smart cards, will be produced on the basis of a reloadable Mifare and disposable Mifare Ultralite chip module. In an initial step, the reloadable card will contain the payment application for Victoria’s rail, bus, and tram services, but could be extended to other applications such as newspaper purchase and other micro-payment transactions. It is expected that over 3 million reloadable PVC cards and up to 70 million disposable paper cards will be manufactured, personalized and delivered by G&D.

For further information about our products, services and solutions for transit please visit www.gi-de.com or contact G & D Australasia direct.