Mobile Smart Ticketing (MST)

The rail industry is progressing toward digital-first ticketing to reduce cost of sale, improve customer experience, and enable flexible products such as season tickets, PAYG and a roadmap toward single and return tickets.

The Mobile Smart Ticketing (MST) initiative (migrating physical ITSO media to a digital format) aims to enable secure, standards-based ticket fulfilment to mobile devices. Initial launch will centre on a pilot for Season tickets, followed by PAYG, and then expansion into singles and returns.

In addition, current fulfilment methods for rail (e.g. barcode, physical smartcard, paper) are isolated today, with retailers and integrators required to support multiple fulfilment technologies, each with distinct standards and operational overhead.

Mobile Smart Ticketing offers the potential for the following

• Elimination of the downsides of current plastic ITSO cards which have to be obtained and updated prior to travel;
• Customers will no longer have to use a separate app to view journey history and product validity;
• Improved gate line speeds - customers will benefit from features such as NFC reader functionality, removing the need to unlock devices or open apps to pass through gates;
• Over-the-air cancellations will also deliver enhanced fraud protection to the industry.

A national rail pilot is targeted for delivery by mid-end 2027, focusing on

• Limited geography and/or Train Operating Company (TOC) deployment;
• Season ticket products as initial use case to prove the technology and proposition;
• Expansion path to PAYG.

Beyond the pilot, RDG in collaboration with industry partners (e.g., FTR Programme, TOCs, etc) will develop a scalable roadmap to deliver singles and returns.

Alongside the Mobile Smart Ticketing initiative, there is an opportunity to explore whether a centralised fulfilment orchestration layer could:

• Reduce complexity for retailers/integrators;
• Standardise interfaces across fulfilment media;
• Lower long-term cost of sale;
• This is exploratory and not a defined requirement of the pilot.

Requirements are as follows

Functional Requirements

• Support secure mobile ticket fulfilment aligned to ITSO Version 2.1.5;
• Enable season ticket products at launch;
• Provide clear roadmap to PAYG and singles & returns enablement;
• Support lifecycle management (issue, update, revoke, renew, replace, etc);
• Enable inspection/validation in existing rail environments.

Technical Requirements

• Compatibility with secure element-based implementations (DESFire);
• Integration with existing retailing and RDG back-office systems;
• Scalable architecture for a national deployment;
• Support for multiple mobile wallet ecosystems;
• API-driven integration model.

Operational Requirements

• High availability and resilience;
• 24/7 customer support and recovery mechanisms (lost device, change of device, re-provisioning);
• Enhanced monitoring and reporting capabilities;
• Security and compliance aligned to RSP rail standards.

Commercial Requirements

• Transparent pricing model (setup, per-transaction, ongoing OPEX, lifecycle costs);
• Scalable commercial structure for national rollout with economies of scale;
• Clarity on licensing and third-party dependencies.

Strategic / Future Requirements

• Potential flexibility to support additional fulfilment media;
• Potential to integrate with a central fulfilment orchestration layer;
• Interoperability across TOCs and geographies.