HiQ helps Plusdial to introduce mobile ticketing system for public transport in Sweden
Plusdial Oy, the provider of Helsinki City Transport's mobile ticketing system, introduces mobile ticketing in Sweden together with HiQ. The first Swedish users are customers of Länstrafiken Mälardalen (LTM) in the city of Örebro. Västerås and Eskilstuna will soon follow suit.
The Helsinki City Transport mobile ticketing system was introduced in 2001, and an average of 270,000 tickets are sold through it each month, altogether 9 million so far. Through the system Helsinki residents can easily order a metro, tram or ferry ticket with their mobile phone. In Örebro, Sweden, mobile tickets have been available since mid-September. The tickets are valid within the operating zone of Örebro city buses. In addition, mobile tickets are valid inbound buses from neighbouring municipalities for transport within the Örebro city limits.
HiQ has helped Plusdial with local adoptions of the mobile ticketing system and has been a partner of Plusdial Oy in updating and developing the software platform used in Helsinki as well as Örebro.
- I am of course very happy about the new market opportunities opening up in the neighbouring country. Örebro is a crucial first step for us in the Swedish market. We have also undertaken preliminary studies and planning projects in several other cities. The current collaboration acts as a pilot project for other Swedish traffic authorities. Within the next few months the service will expand to the cities of Västerås and Eskilstuna, says Kimmo Mattila, managing director of Plusdial Oy.
The implementation and public response to the mobile ticketing system are followed with keen attention also in Gothenburg and Stockholm, both of which have already prepared preliminary studies for implementing the system. Special attention is paid to the capacity of the mobile ticketing to remove cash from buses, which is today seen to be a crucial improvement to increase security of both drivers and passengers. The mobile ticketing system can be easily localised in different countries, because approximately 80 per cent of the system is based on a tested solution that has been in use in Helsinki for several years.
- Last year we updated the Helsinki City Transport system to better accommodate international sales. The capacity that was built then, along with some special solutions, has been utilised now in LTM's case. When a system operates under stringent reliability demands, it is important to use technologies that have been tried and tested in practice, says project manager Juha Mynttinen from HiQ Softplan
- The localisation of the mobile ticketing system in the Swedish market has been an interesting project, because the system is an integral part of the everyday lives of so many people. As always, we have made every effort to make sure that the system functions flawlessly. Swedish operators use different SMS and billing systems than Finnish ones, so localisation in these areas has been necessary. In addition, we have modified help desk and other user interfaces depending on the market area, Mynttinen says.
For further information please contact:
Lars Stugemo, President and CEO, HiQ International, tel.: +46 8 588 90 000
Pekka Neva, Managing Director, HiQ Softplan Ltd, Tel. +358-9-4355 8634
Kimmo Mattila, Managing Director, Plusdial Oy, Tel. +358-40-548 5656
Annika Billberg, Head of Corporate Communications, HiQ International, tel.: +46 8 588 90 015