DENMARK is set to become the second country in Europe to introduce a national smartcard ticket accepted by all rail, metro and bus operators.
The Travel Card project is being managed by Rejsekort A/S, a joint venture company set up by all Danish public transport operators. On September 13 Rejsekort announced that it had selected the EastWest consortium led by Thales and Accenture for a contract worth over €200m. The principal partners are also leading the East-West consortium responsible for the OV-Chipkaart in the Netherlands (RG 9.05 p530).
The Danish agreement coverS the provision and support of one million contactless cards by 2009, with options for further instalments based on passenger take-up. Thales will provide the ticketing equipment, security and back-end systems, with TDC supporting the installation and maintenance and IBM SDC hosting the back-office systems.
After a pilot project in 2007, Travel Card will be rolled out in the greater København area during 2008 and extended to the rest of Denmark in 2009.
