The event attracted over 100 attendees from the European public transport and operator sectors and featured a presentation from Thomas Mann, head of distribution at Swedish railway, SJ, which implemented an m-ticketing platform in late 2008.

Telecoms.com managed to grab a few minutes with Mann and spoke to him about the implementation. We also to talk to Tobias Friman, manager of Swedish consultancy Centigo, who worked as project manager with SJ to deploy the solution, as well as Andrew Bud, chairman of transaction firm mBlox, who spoke about a future where consumers can pay for their ticket online or even have it charged to their phone bill.

Mann said around 20 per cent of all tickets in use on SJ rail are on the m-ticketing platform at present, and this is without any sort of marketing being done for the service. By spreading the word, Mann hopes to get 40 per cent of all tickets in use on the m-ticketing platform by the end of 2010.

Around 20 per cent of all tickets in use are on the m-ticketing platform at present, and this is without any sort of marketing being done for the service. By spreading the word, Mann hopes to get 40 per cent of all tickets in use on the m-ticketing platform by the end of 2010.

According to Mann, the biggest drivers for the platform are customer comfort with website sales, and a wish to avoid queuing at the station, as well as a general acceptance of the e-ticket concept because of the moves by the airline industry to move from paper tickets to electronic tickets. “M-tickets are also much cheaper because there’s less infrastructure,” Mann said.

Friman discusses the challenges, such as implementing a system that could send out tickets as plain text messages that also had a machine readable representation.

The mBlox m-ticketing seminar for the public transport sector attracted over 100 attendees from the European public transport and operator sectors and took place at the London Transport Museum.

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