Concessionary Travel - get on the bus!
April 2008 Concessionary Travel Scheme:
Comments, Concerns, Observations,
Questions and Recommendations from
the SmartCard Networking Forum (SCNF)
and LASSeO
The Local Authority Smartcard Standards e-Organisation (LASSeO) and the SmartCard Networking Forum (SCNF) have studied Bulletin no. 5 from the Department for Transport and have consulted their member stakeholder groups. As Chairs, we have been mandated to express a number of important concerns about the proposals. The membership and subject experts at the Wolverhampton workshops on 2 nd May supported this submission.
The political imperative is well understood but many local authorities that are active in smart cards and their industry partners share doubts about the approach being taken. There is great concern that the proposals will distort the already fragile, but growing, citizen card market in England . The proposals could also result in a significant hiatus in the roll-out of citizen card schemes that are already underway and cause significant and costly reworking of schemes already in operation. It is these very schemes that have taken the risks and understand best the operation of smart cards in the hands of local authority residents.
Specifically, the enrolment, registration, data management and card production processes using card management systems (CMS) are well understood by our members. These processes are proposed in Bulletin 5 but not used currently for concessionary travel schemes by most TCAs and little consultation, to date, appears to have taken place with live scheme practitioners in England . With such a large national card issuance planned, we would expect experienced stakeholders involved in photo and smart card issuances to have been consulted. We strongly request DfT to address this by discussion with our two organisations.
A real opportunity to promote the cause of smart multi-application citizen cards will be missed unless some of the identified issues are addressed.
The SCNF and LASSeO together represent the widest community of local government interest in using entitlement card technology in the UK . Members have considerable and mature experience of a wide variety of implementations. They are responsible for maintaining and developing the outputs from the £5.5m invested in the ODPM-sponsored National Smart Card Project. They form the largest body representing local government interests in the field of smartcards and in specifications now widely adopted by the local government smartcard community.
We send an open invitation to talk to us in order to develop a technically correct and operationally robust rollout for April 2008. We are all excited by the proposition of having up to 10m English citizens holding smart cards funded by the taxpayer and can help to present this as an opportunity rather than a threat.
The opportunity for these cards to work reliably in concessionary travel and as service access tokens for residents and their local authority is unmissable. We trust that DfT will note this and work to enhance their credentials with the local government fraternity to achieve a win/win result. Without good co-operation, the risks of an unsuccessful 2008 concessionary card scheme rise substantially.
The following paper sets out the background to this response, the process that the organisations have carried out, a series of concerns, comments, questions and recommendations, and proposals for further discussion and engagement.
Mick Davies - Chair LASSeO
Geoff Doggett - Chair SCNF 7 May 2008