Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

In March 2002, the Railway Procurement Agency was given statutory responsibility for the delivery of an integrated ticketing system. The proposed contactless smartcard-based integrated ticketing system will enable a passenger to use a ticket on one or more scheduled public transport services, by road and rail, irrespective of the transport operator involved. It will be introduced on a phased basis, initially in the Dublin area. The roll-out of integrated ticketing using smartcard technology is being phased in, in line with international experience.

In April 2004 a private operator, Morton's Coaches, in conjunction with the RPA and as a "proof of concept", successfully launched smartcards on its services. Last March, another step was taken with the launch of smartcards on Luas services. The Luas smartcard deployment will help obtain important feedback from passengers and provide operational experience for the next stage of integrated ticketing.

The RPA projects that Dublin Bus, and possibly some additional private operators, will follow with smartcards on their services by early next year, with the DART projected to follow in late 2006. In early 2006 passengers should be able to travel on both bus and Luas services in Dublin using one integrated smartcard.

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