Smart Card Alliance Forms Transportation Council

The newly formed Transportation Council, in association with the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), will initiate projects to support applications of smart card use. The overall goal of the Alliances Transportation Council is to help accelerate the deployment of standards-based smart card payment programs within the transportation industry. The transit industry has made significant progress in supporting the use of contactless smart card-based payments as the most convenient and secure payment option for commuters, said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. The Transportation Council would like to leverage that progress by joining forces with key organizations, such as APTA, to address ways to accelerate payment processing across multiple operators. Initial Transportation Council projects will support advancement of transit fare collection systems and explore linkages between transit payment systems and smart card programs in the tolling, parking and financial industries. The Council also plans to investigate how transportation payment systems and credentialing systems can be linked through the use of multi-application smart card technology. The Transportation Council is open to participation from vendors and transit organizations that join the Alliance and the Council. It will be managed by a steering committee, initially co-chaired by Mike Dinning and Greg Garback. The steering committee includes a broad spectrum of leaders from the transportation and smart card industries, such as APTA, systems integrators, consultancies, financial service providers and technology firms. Current members include: · Tom Parker, BART · Martin Schroeder, APTA · Willy Dommen, Booz Allen Hamilton · Marty Turock, Cubic · Michael Laezza, ERG Group · Karen Loughlin, IBM · Paul Legacki, Infineon Technologies · Martyn Cooper, MasterCard International · Bob Wilberger, Northrop Grumman Corporation Alliance Technology and Industry Councils The Transportation Council is one of several new Smart Card Alliance Technology and Industry Councils, a new type of focused group within the overall structure of the Alliance. These councils have been created to foster increased industry collaboration within a specified industry or market segment and produce tangible results, speeding smart card adoption and industry growth.