Intelligent bus tickets with a micro-chip that records every journey made and automatically charges passengers the cheapest fare available could be introduced in the West Midlands.

After checking in with the bus driver, the tickets would connect to the vehicle’s satellite navigation equipment and then automatically detect when they got off.  It means passengers could even be sent a monthly print-out of their travel habits. 

The same on-board satellite equipment would be able to ‘announce’ when the bus arrived at each stop, as well as feed information to passengers waiting at bus stops further along the route.

This glimpse into the future is revealed in a report by West Midlands public transport body Centro-PTA to be discussed by the scrutiny committee next week (Monday 20 March).

Councillors are stepping up efforts to promote cash-less travel and have set a target date of 2007 for the introduction of ‘smart card’ tickets on at least some services in the region.  They believe the new technology could help passengers and cut congestion by persuading more people to use buses, trains and trams.

An initial study has found that the 2007 target date would be ‘challenging’ and that the way bus services are currently run in the West Midlands – with a host of different operators – would be a significant hurdle.  Any scheme would have to be introduced gradually, probably starting with concessionary travel passes.

“If we are serious about making public transport more attractive we have to be considering this sort of futuristic project,” says PTA chairman Cllr Gary Clarke.  “There could be massive benefits for passengers and city-regions like the West Midlands really do need to be investing more in public transport in order to tackle the growing problem of congestion.”

The majority of people travelling by bus and tram in the West Midlands already use some form of travelcard rather than part with loose change – and a smartcard trial among senior citizens in Coventry was both successful and popular. 

An experimental intelligent ticket system has already been tested in the German city of Dresden, although the system favoured by Centro-PTA is not yet commercially available.  As well as being more convenient for passengers, the data recorded by the system could save money by helping to plan better public transport networks.

In London the Oystercard system has expanded rapidly.  Passengers check in by touching a card reader as they board the bus or pass through Underground ticket barriers.  The smartcard is now used for more than 50 per cent of all bus and tube journeys and is enabling Transport for London to introduce new types of tickets, passenger discounts and to reduce fraud.

The cost of introducing a similar system – or better – in the West Midlands has not yet been calculated, but councillors have allocated £100,000 to investigate the options.  They believe that Government funding could be on offer as part of a wider package of public transport improvements and congestion measures.

Monday’s meeting of the PTA scrutiny committee will receive a report from the member panel that has already started to look at different systems in use.

“We are offering a clear pointer that some form of Smartcard is the optimum solution for ticketing across the West Midlands,” says Scrutiny chair Cllr Chaman Lal.

The report recommends a phased approach, starting with concessionary passes and leading to the type of intelligent tickets like those used in Dresden at a later date.