Membership
Our membership, the ITSO community, is made up of organisations from the public transport industry.
Public Sector
Our members from the Public Sector include local authorities, passenger transport executives, national government and the devolved administrations of Scotland and Wales.
Local authorities in the UK have statutory duties in relation to the provision of public transport and other services to enable people to travel to work, school and leisure activities.
These include the administration of the national concessionary travel schemes in England, Scotland and Wales (for the elderly and disabled) which are backed by ITSO technology as well as the introduction of commercial smart ticketing schemes.
The Government encourages authorities to work with transport operators to improve public transport and encourage higher use because this can:
- reduce CO2 emissions, which is good for health and the environment
- ease congestion, thereby reducing working time lost through delays
- make employment and public services more accessible
Transport Operator
Transport operators are encouraged and funded by the Government to introduce smart ticketing as a way of increasing the use of public transport through improving their customers’ experience.
Transport operators include the biggest five bus operators in the country – Arriva, First, Go-Ahead, National Express and Stagecoach – who have all installed ITSO-compliant smart ticketing systems on their buses to allow use of ITSO smartcards; wether concessionary or their own or multi-operator shared schemes.
Some local authorities are also giving grant aid to smaller bus operators to help them install and run smart ticketing systems.
The Government offers grants to operators for smart ticketing initiatives, as well as other things, through schemes like BBAF (Better Bus Area Fund), BSOG (Bus Service Operators Grant) and LSTF (Local Sustainable Transport Fund).
All forms of public transport such as ferries, trams and subways are, or can be, included in ITSO-compliant ticketing schemes.
Transport for London currently uses the Oyster smartcard system. Work continues to ensure that transport systems in London can also accept ITSO smart ticketing.
Suppliers
Companies who supply ITSO compliant equipments and products to the ITSO membership can become ITSO supplier members.