http://www.silicon.com/publicsector/0,3800010403,39168037,00.htm

Of course this will mean the need for cyber gripping.

On 3 Aug, 08:59, Bob virgin.net> wrote:

Why oh why is it assumed that everyone has a mobile ? And what happens
with a mobile ticket if your battery goes flat ?

Mrk Enderby

m.j.enderby@dl.ac.uk wrote:

You get re-charged.

"Bob" virgin.net> wrote in message
news:1186127972.818943.206660@k79g2000hse.googlegroups.com...

Notice how its spun as a great idea by the TOC - all the recent franchises
(since SWT) were required to provide for smartcard ticketing. It doesn't
seem to make too much sense to go for unique products in different areas
though, does it. I reckon a number of these ideas will fail to take off, and
they'll come down in favour of ITSO, with Oyster becoming ITSO compatible
too. Of course if RFID chips are built into phones as a secondary function
that would be useful...

Paul

In message <1186127972.818943.206660@k79g2000hse.googlegroups.com>, at
00:59:32 on Fri, 3 Aug 2007, Bob virgin.net> remarked:

"Transport For London's Oyster card does not comply with Itso,
so Lynch will not be able to integrate his scheme with it.

Lynch said: "I decided, let's drop the card out of the concept.
Why not use a device which everyone already has - their phone?"

So are they suggesting everyone waves their phone screen at the
barriers, having fumbled around to retrieve a picture message with a
barcode on it? And will the phone then have its amount of credit updated
by SMS (I can't see how else it would work).

On Fri, 3 Aug 2007 09:49:25 +0100 someone who may be "Paul Scott"
btinternet.com> wrote this:-

Common practice. A little while ago one of the electrical chains
started spinning that they were good people for taking away old
electrical goods. The spin fails to mention that this is a
requirement under WEEE. While this has been badly handled by the
incompetents in the DTI as far as small operations are concerned
they have got it about right for big business.

On Fri, 3 Aug 2007, Roland Perry wrote:

First tried this on the ftr (York) before the scrapped the entire machine
ticket system. It was fiddly, which makes it slow.

You could get an email of the barcode and print it out which was a lot
easier than faffing with your phone, but compared to non-contact (or even
the normal train mag-strip) cards, still slow to use.

In message , at
12:45:50 on Fri, 3 Aug 2007, Chris Johns eh.org.invalid> remarked:

Chiltern are allegedly trialling a system like this for a subset of
their Advance Purchase tickets.

On Fri, 03 Aug 2007 01:34:59 -0700, m.j.enderby@dl.ac.uk wrote:

Chiltern have an FAQ page for their mobile phone ticketing:
http://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/content.php?nID=165

"Q: What happens if my mobile battery goes flat before or during my
journey – or I forget / lose my phone?
A: Your mobile phone will be your 'ticket' so it is your
responsibility to look after it and have enough battery life for your
entire journey. However, our scanners will have a record of who is
expected on any particular train, so it's wise to carry additional ID
as back up.

Q: Do I need proof of identity (as well as my mobile) to get through
the barriers?
A: No. However, if you are unable to produce the correct barcode on
your phone, you may be allowed to pass if you are able to produce
additional ID."

Just to clarify, there are two separate technologies being mixed up
here.

The one that is already being used (eg on Chiltern) is for a bar code
to be sent to your mobile phone. This bar code will be read by a bar
code reader on the gateline or by a gripper with a hand-held bar code
reader. At the moment, for various reasons, this is really only
workable with pre-booked tickets so that, for example, if your battery
goes dead you are on a printed manifest that the on-train staff will
have.

The second technology will be to use a chip inside your mobile phone
which will take the place of (and remove the need for) a separate
piece of plastic called a smartcard. You will wave your phone over a
smartcard reader on the gateline in the same way that you wave a
smartcard. It doesn't matter if your battery goes flat during the
journey - the power to read the chip comes from the reader (just as
you don't have a battery in your Oyster card).