THE Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which manages industry-wide ticketing for Britain’s passenger operators, has completed migration of its back office to the Unicard Host or Operator Processing System (Hops) that will support the introduction of smart ticketing.
RDG say moving to digital ticketing is important for Britain’s rail industry as increasing numbers of passengers switch from paper tickets.
Unicard’s Hops solution is described as highly resilient with both transaction processing and reporting capability. The centralised cloud-based platform is a first for the rail industry, RDG says, and can support smart ticketing for all 16 of Britain’s passenger operators by replacing individual back offices.
Hops also makes it quicker and easier to set up new configurations, add new operators, and track smart ticket data and transactions. This will enable operators to monitor passenger journeys and customer behaviour.
This secure tracking function will provide full visibility of all activities via a single user interface, helping the industry to tackle fare evasion on the rail network.
The new system is auto-scaleable, able to handle increased workload during peak times and deliver a more reliable smart ticketing infrastructure. With scalability built in, operators will be better equipped to accommodate the expected increase in the use of smart ticketing.
RDG says that Hops is also future-proofed for third-party retailing and mobile-based ticketing.
Migration to Hops forms part of RDG’s Smart Ticketing Hub (STH) programme, which aims to support its operator members as they shift towards digital ticketing. STH also includes projects to enable ticketing based on contactless bank cards and smartphones.
“By providing more robust and reliable supporting systems, we’ll be able to ensure that the ongoing transition to digital ticketing is smooth and seamless for our customers,” says RDG’s chief information officer, Mr Simon Moorhead.
“Flexible smart ticketing infrastructure provided by Unicard not only enables us to meet present customer demands with agility but also has the potential to accommodate other forms of smart ticketing in the future.”
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