Smart Technology Solutions Limited

Ascom Transport Revenue becomes the first automatic fare collection provider in the UK to offer an unattended Chip and PIN payment solution with Smart Technology Solutions

Transport Revenue, a division of Ascom, is the world's leading provider of equipment and systems for automatic fare collection in the public and private transport sectors across 22 countries. The company offers a wide range of products from automatic Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) and access control gates, to magnetic, contactless and mixed ticket validators.

As the UK's leading provider of TVMs, having supplied over 1,100 to Britain's railways over the last ten years, Ascom Transport - in co-operation with Smart Technology Solutions Ltd (STS), a market leading smart card solutions company - upgraded their TVMs with Chip and PIN functionality, in line with the Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS) roll-out programme.

TVMs are essentially unmanned devices which are used in many of Britain's railway stations to help reduce queuing and provide a customer service outside of normal working hours. Ascom Transport has been working with STS for three years to develop and bring to market a Chip and PIN based TVM. Ascom Transport chose Emvelink - STS' flagship product - to provide a cost-effective path to the acceptance of the new smart credit and debit cards, in addition to its existing UK magnetic stripe readers.

Overcoming the hurdles

However, the project came up against some initial hurdles. Initially EMVCo, the industry body responsible for managing interoperability and acceptance of payment cards worldwide, mandated approval for a generic Chip and PIN software kernel. However, the industry body subsequently ruled that every software kernel for every individual hardware device deployed must be approved individually. As a result, before the project could go ahead, STS needed to obtain re-approval for Emvelink for each device, including the unattended device required by Ascom Transport. Fortunately, STS obtained approval in less than three months and Ascom Transport was able to start a one-month pilot at the beginning of August 2005, becoming the first automatic fare collection provider to offer an unattended Chip and PIN payment solution in the UK. Four stations in London and the South-East - Cambridge, Fenchurch Street, Finsbury Park and King's Cross - trialled the system and after 30 days the Rail Settlement Plan, the organisation responsible for the operation of the fare systems and ticket types offered by the train operators, approved the system and gave the go-ahead for the initial roll-out.

Roll-out begins

On 12th September, the first phase of the Chip and PIN roll-out began involving 161 TVMs across London, Wales and the South, including Kings Lynn, Stansted Airport and Newport. The machines are running on STS' EMV Level 2 kernel - Emvelink - which will provide full Chip and PIN functionality. Level 2 is the international standard for chip-based payment cards as set by Europay, Mastercard and Visa. STS' Emvelink provides Ascom Transport with the ability to utilise any EMV Level 1 hardware device. The roll-out is due to be completed in November 2005 and the train stations are already reaping the benefits of Chip and PIN, in particular, the reduction of fraud. The introduction of a Chip and PIN system often leads to falling fraud rates as a Chip embedded in the card proves that the card is genuine and not counterfeit, (this is the most common form of card fraud), and a PIN proves that the cardholder is the genuine owner. Ascom Transport is using a Hypercom pinpad and a Magtek reader.

Enhanced anti-fraud protection

Since the introduction of Chip and PIN in the retail environment in January 2005, latest statistics show that card fraud is down by 29 per cent - from £126.6m in the first six months of 2004 to £89.9m in the same period in 2005. Ascom Transport and STS hope to replicate similar results in the country's train stations. In fact, only two weeks after the Chip and PIN system had been installed in London's Finsbury Park station - a fraud hotspot - card fraud had decreased by 25 per cent. In addition to providing fraud protection for customer present sales, Chip and PIN functionality also reduces chargeback processing effort, lowers costs for the train operators and increases consumer confidence in the use of credit and debit cards through enhanced security.

"The Chip and PIN pilot and initial roll-out have proved a resounding success," according to Prakash Solanki, software project manager for Transport Revenue at Ascom. "We chose to work with STS on the upgrade to Chip and PIN as we have been so impressed by the professionalism of their team and their unwavering support coupled with a first-class product with unsurpassed levels of integration, versatility and reliability. We look forward to continuing our long-term relationship with STS to help us provide the best possible service for our clients," Solanki concluded.

"Ascom is acknowledged as a world leading provider of automatic fare collection systems and we are delighted that Emvelink has been chosen as the optimum solution for delivering full Chip and PIN capability to the UK's railway stations," said Steve Turner, chief executive officer at STS. "Our product provides real advantages over hardware-based systems and Ascom Transport will benefit from a highly flexible solution, allowing easy integration into existing ticket machines and a quick and easy upgrade path to Chip and PIN. We are confident our open, reliable solution will help Ascom Transport build on its position as market leader."

As regards future plans, Ascom Transport is planning to integrate Emvelink to provide an EMV Level 2 solution for its new TIS9000 range of TVMs. The TIS9000 machines offer customers a user-friendly touch screen and multi-language options, whilst operators are provided with an innovative solution for revenue collection.