Smartspace Software Share Discussion Threads

[mistertibbs] 17/5/2007 23:15

Yes I am Awilson. However, as a nominee shareholder and a 24/7 carer it could prove somewhat difficult to attend but I will attempt to do so. Company stated yesterday the results were currently at the printer and were due out sometime in June. The young telephomist/receptionist sounded startled that a shareholder had phoned.What? Little ol' moi? Harmless wee soul that I am.

[garth] 17/5/2007 14:49

Link to Monday night's debate on the Concessionary Bus Travel Bill:

[garth] 17/5/2007 07:03

And further fine detail below on yesterday's piece on the roll-out of ITSO bus travel cards. Something I found interesting yesterday was the fact that the Nowcards have clearly been issued with ITSO functionality, but not as yet enabled. The piece said that some cards were being pre-enabled, which was a 4 second process, in order to make travel/charging use faster when the whole project goes live. For 4 seconds to be classed as slow entry to the bus shows how much faster loading will become with ITSO in full use. Time is money.

New hi-tech card for bus travel
Published on 15/05/2007


SMART OPTION: The new Smartcard for bus travel BUS passengers in Millom will be the next to benefit from a hi-tech travel card system.

The scheme, which is launched in the west of the county on Sunday, marks a revolution in the way councils can calculate concessionary bus fares.

The technology is part of a £7m project, which went live on Stagecoach vehicles in Carlisle and Penrith on May 13 and is due to be followed by Barrow and Kendal in the coming weeks.

[garth] 17/5/2007 06:56

Piece yesterday on concessionary bus travel. Note the cross-border section. Welsh and Scottish executives have already chosen to take the ITSO route.....

News: Travel & leisure | 15 May 2007

Elderly bus pass scheme to go nationwide
It will allow free off-peak travel in England



Free off-peak bus travel for the elderly and disabled in England has moved a step forward.

The Concessionary Bus Travel Bill has already cleared its stages in the Lords and has now been given a second reading by MPs.

Pensioners already enjoy bus travel concessions in their own council areas.

The Bill will extend this, giving people aged 60 and over, as well as the disabled, free off-peak travel anywhere in England from April next year.

Cross border arrangements
In the Commons Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander came under cross party pressure to enable 'cross-border arrangements' on services between England and Wales or Scotland as he opened the Bill's second reading debate.

Mr Alexander said it contained 'enabling powers' to facilitate this - if agreement was reached between Westminster and the Welsh Assembly or the Scottish Executive.

But he said those discussions were 'not for today' and would take place 'in due course'.

Chancellor Gordon Brown committed up to £250 million a year to pay for the change in last year's Budget.

Mr Alexander said: 'It will mean for the first time that around 11 million older and disabled people will be able to use off-peak local buses, free of charge, anywhere in England.'

Bus services
The concession will apply from 9.30am to 11pm on weekdays, all day on Bank holidays and at weekends - allowing 'travel, for example, from Cornwall to Cambridgeshire or from Durham to Dorset.'

Mr Alexander said buses were 'at the heart' of Britain's transport system and a 'lifeline' to many communities.

'We want older and disabled people to be able to look beyond their local areas and have free access to local bus services anywhere in England.'

© The Press Association, All rights reserved.

http://www.which.co.uk/reports_and_campaigns/travel_and_leisure/reports/
holiday_advice/Free_bus_travel_news_article_557_114900.jsp

[spud] 16/5/2007 19:14

Regular as clockwork are the 50k buys. Looks as if there is a sizable accumulator not wish to draw attention to himself or put the price up.

spud

[awilson] 16/5/2007 14:00

mistertibbs
You are obviously extremely well placed to attend the agms!

[mistertibbs] 16/5/2007 13:53

Not that I'm aware of Garth but will sniff about. I'm from Glasgow, just outside East Kilbride as it happens. Thought centro was Midlands

[longshanks] 16/5/2007 10:36

I like the thought of breaking ground "internationally".

[garth] 16/5/2007 10:30

Mastertibbs,

Are Centro in your area?

Re. international - a number of different countries are looking at using ITSO as their own standard. I believe South Africa already are...... but DYOR ;0)

G.

[mistertibbs] 16/5/2007 09:58

Great find Garth. Would be nice to see my local stagercoach service use this, especially as they also have the west coast main line and looking good for one of another 3 including east coast/cross country/cannot remember the 3rd one, train franchises and also in line for Manchester metro and are they not involved in the Sheffield metro. I wonder if international relates to their US subsidiary?

[garth] 16/5/2007 09:46

Ooooh baby. That reads nicely. Just check out that last paragraph. Relight my fire :0)

Bus smart cards launch in Cumbria
Source: Cumbria County Council
Published Tuesday, 15 May, 2007 - 06:30
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A world-leading electronic smart card system for bus passengers has been launched in Cumbria.

NoWcard went live on Stagecoach buses in Carlisle and Penrith (Sunday 13 May) following its successful introduction in Blackpool last September and Rossendale in East Lancashire earlier this month.

It will be introduced on Stagecoach buses in West Cumbria on 20 May, followed by Barrow on 27 May and Kendal on 3 June.

The £7 million project is now being rolled out to all major bus operators across the North West and spells a revolution in the way local authorities can calculate concessionary bus fares. It is the culmination of four years of development work led by Cumbria County Council, in partnership with Blackpool Borough Council, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and Lancashire County Council and funded mainly through the Local Transport Plans of the four lead authorities and the Department for Transport. The roll-out will be completed in October 2007.

The NoWcard is the first time the new Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation (ITSO) specification for smart cards has been fully deployed on buses anywhere in the world and is a unique achievement for a local government partnership.

The NoWcard features a photograph of the holder and is loaded with data which identifies the concessionary fare entitlement of the holder. When the holder presents his NoWcard to the ticket machine on the bus for the first time, the card is converted electronically to the new ITSO-compliant technology. The smart card then automatically prompts the ticket machine to calculate the correct concessionary entitlement and the relevant fare for the journey.

At the end of each driver's shift, all the transaction data is encrypted, downloaded and sent electronically to the ITSO Head Office Processing System, which then passes on the data to the NoWcard Payment And Charges system. This allows detailed invoices to be produced for concessionary travel for the Travel Concession Authorities, who are the six district councils in Cumbria, and calculates the revenue credit due to each bus operator.

The Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation (ITSO) specification was launched in 2004 by the Department for Transport. It has been designed to allow a variety of smart cards to be used and recognised by different types of electronic ticket machines. It is the Government specification for all public-funded transport smart card schemes across the UK.

Twenty Travel Concession Authorities in the NoWcard area are involved in the roll-out across the region, where 300,000 NoWcards have already been issued to concessionary bus pass holders. The aim is to have all 1,800 buses in the region operating the smart ticketing technology by the autumn of 2007.

The long-term aim of the NoWcard partners is to provide an inter-operable smart card-based system capable of expansion to cover all smart card types. Future plans include smart cards with an electronic purse, commercial smart cards, multi-operator smart cards and student travel cards.

Councillor Ian Stewart, Cumbria County Council's cabinet member for transport, said: "This is an exciting moment for our unique partnership. The North West has led the pack on rolling out smart cards for buses; it will make journeys much easier and will speed up boarding times. It will also give accurate information on costings for both the district councils and the bus operator."

Chris Bowles, the managing director of Stagecoach North West, said: "We have been able to make the roll out even smoother by the early upgrading of about 8,000 NoWcards in Carlisle and Penrith last month. As this process takes about 4 seconds per card, these early upgrades will mean that there is less likelihood of delays, particularly to the busier town services, for the first two or three days of live running."

Neil Scales, Chair of ITSO, said: "When we say this is world-beating technology for bus passengers we mean it. Smart cards will jump-start the digital economy by making it easier to perform a multitude of daily tasks. It will modernise the way millions of people use public transport, reducing the need for them to queue and enabling them to get through ticket gates and onto buses much more quickly and efficiently.

"Not only will this new technology transform the face of transport as we know it, it can support a variety of other types of applications. It will reduce the number of cards in people's purses or wallets and it will provide them with a secure, mobile identity that they can use to access to a variety of different services. This is a fantastic example of organisations working together to improve services. We are breaking new ground with this, not just nationally but internationally," said Mr Scales.

Ends

[spud] 15/5/2007 17:19

Consistent sells with stabilised bid/offer allied to the Market size offered to sell (x4) v buy (100k v 25k).

spud

[bonty] 15/5/2007 15:28

What makes you think that spud?

[spud] 15/5/2007 15:10

Background buy being filled imo.

spud

[garth] 10/5/2007 13:42

Smartcards get green light in West Midlands

Readers will be installed on all public transport to enable flexible ticketing

Dave Friedlos, Computing, 10 May 2007

West midlands is to benefit from smart cards
The authority responsible for public transport in the West Midlands is to introduce smartcard technology next year to allow more flexible ticketing.

Centro will fund the £10m infrastructure project but hopes commercial bus and rail operators will also use the technology to deliver smartcards to all its passengers.

The company initially plans to provide smartcards to concessions from 1 April, and will fit all buses and metro trains with electronic ticket machines by 2009, says customer services assistant director Chris Perry.

'In the long term, we want commercial operators to move to smartcards to deliver more innovative ticketing, including fare capping, such as that available on Oyster cards in London,' he said.

It is hoped smartcard technology will encourage more people to use public transport, while also giving Centro a more accurate view of its concession card holders and reduce fraud.

Centro is in the process of appointing a supplier to provide smartcards, card issuing equipment, readers and back-office software based on the ITSO smartcard standard.

'It will be a complex task because we will need to capture and verify passenger data for more than 550,000 cards,' said Perry. 'But once the infrastructure is in place, we can show commercial operators that the technology is viable.'

By footing the infrastructure costs Centro will encourage rail and bus operators to provide smartcard ticketing, says Butler Group analyst Sarah Burnett.

'Cost has always been a stumbling block for commercial operators, but in the long run both Centro and rail or bus operators will recover costs through more efficient ticketing,' she said.

[bowlhead] 09/5/2007 22:35

The free Metro newspaper also had something on its TFL page about Barclaycard completing trials of its combo cards at its Northampton base and extending them. Shame they've been able to to this without ITSO...

[rambutan2] 09/5/2007 21:58

today's moneymail carried a piece "Card aims to do away with cash" on pg42 which talked about rbs mastercard cash cards, and barclaycard oyster swipe cards which are being introduced into selected regions of the uk.

update: this is the similar online piece...

[rambutan2] 09/5/2007 21:54

see below.

[awilson] 09/5/2007 19:57

The second trade this morning look a little odd - any ideas or explanations?

[spud] 09/5/2007 18:47

Me too. I will continue to add @ support circa 4p. Another 200k to go.

spud

[awilson] 09/5/2007 18:45

I continue to like the story and added a few more this morning.

[garth] 09/5/2007 16:09

hebgb

I still follow with a great deal of interest. They seem to be blown around quite dramatically on sentiment at present. I'm still not convinced yet on profitability though. My cash is here. But I keep an eye for an opportunity to add at IGE. Same with IGP. Neither appear quite so attractive as SMRT though at current levels.

G.

[hebgb] 09/5/2007 15:02

garth - do you still follow Image Scan? It looks set for a big boost this month.

[garth] 09/5/2007 14:54

Mastertibbs,

Stocks like CAR, DYS, TFC, PIC, SVR etc. form the backbone of my ISA. They are long term holdings. CAR has had a good run and may pause for breath a while - but I continue to hold.

SMRT is non-ISA and little researched so it's a different beast. The lower market cap and more focussed business mean that any news is significant in piecing together the story and possible potential. It is still well off the radars. I enjoy digging in. I continue to add as funds allow.

Post 659 is, I agree, very interesting :0)

G.

[mistertibbs] 09/5/2007 13:53

You really are working your little socks of Garth and much appreciated. Post 659 of particular interest.

I believe this is similar to the green power story in that many players, some big winners but lots of potential all the way down the chain, with no one company dominating.

Still busy in car or has that made it's money for the time being?