ITSO Ltd

ITSO Ltd

ITSO is a not-for-profit technical standardisation and interoperability membership organisation with objectives to:

• maintain and develop the ITSO specification
• operate and manage an interoperable smart media environment
• facilitate and support development of interoperable smart ticketing schemes that comply with the ITSO specification.

ITSO was established as a result of discussions between various UK passenger transport authorities concerning the lack of standards for interoperable smart card ticketing. These discussions grew to include other authorities, transport operators and government. ITSO membership covers the breadth of the transport sector including transport operators (bus, tram and train operating companies), suppliers to the industry, local authorities and public transport executives. Supported by the Department for Transport, ITSO has links with major transport industry organisations and established smart card schemes in the UK and overseas.

ITSO started out as the Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation but this has been dropped and ITSO is now just ITSO. That is because the specification covers other forms of ticketing besides smartcards and transport.

The Department for Transport introduced in 2010 the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme for all people of retirement age using buses, which uses ITSO smart cards. Transport Scotland and the Welsh Assembly Government have implemented ITSO in their concessionary travel schemes. The Yorkshire region is also piloting an implementation called Yorcard.