Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 103: To ask the Minister for Transport the progress which the RPA has made on integrated ticketing; the reason its introduction is taking so long; and when the full system will be in place. [21251/05]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The roll out of integrated ticketing using smartcard technology, for which the Railway Procurement Agency, RPA, was given statutory responsibility in March 2002, will be introduced on a phased basis, in line with international experience.

The proposed system, which 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, will be introduced in the Dublin area initially. The projected timescale of four years, from 2002 to 2006, compares favourably with similar systems developed elsewhere, for example in London and Hong Kong.

The first stage of the phased rollout took place in April 2004 when 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 provide important feedback from passengers and operational experience for the next stage of integrated ticketing.

The RPA currently projects that smartcards will be introduced on Dublin Bus services next year, with the DART projected to follow thereafter. In 2006, passengers should be able to travel on both bus and Luas services in Dublin using one integrated smartcard.