Rasmus Lindholm, Director of Partnership Services at ERTICO, met National Mobile Payment’s Strategic Director, Gábor Dávidházy in Budapest at the beginning of March. The aim of this encounter was to explore convergence and find opportunities for cooperation between the two organisations. The discussion took place against the backdrop of National Mobile Payment’s and ERTICO’s aim to contribute bringing ITS to the core of Hungary’s Transport roadmap.
National Mobile Payment is a key stakeholder on Hungary’s transport sector. It is leading the launch of a nation-wide mobile payment system, which is in its initial phase handling mobile parking, sales of highway stickers and distance based tolling for trucks, which services are already live since July 2014.
This breakthrough will substantially modernise and harmonise public transport ticket purchases across the country. Thanks to it, apart from the fact that purchasing a transportation ticket will be done in a blink of an eye using mobile phones, the system will allow nationwide multimodal and interoperable access to public transportation.
This system might not only benefit Hungary, as it has the potential to become a source of inspiration for public authorities and service providers in different parts of Europe. ERTICO and National Mobile Payment hope this will represent one of the first steps ahead on the track towards further ITS deployment.
During his visit, Mr. Lindholm also met with the city of Debrecen. The city has increasing mobility challenges and is counting on public transport as a means to solve some of these issues. In addition the Deputy Mayor Mr. Lajos Barcsa emphasised the importance of a potentially international cooperation as he sees many other cities in Europe faced with the same challenges. Sharing experiences and learning from each other would be essential.
Strategic cooperation among local stakeholders, such as the Centre for Budapest Transport (BKK) or IBM Hungary, will be essential to boost momentum on ITS implementation activities across the country.
About National Mobile Payment:
National Mobile Payment Plc. is an innovative organisation of the 21st century providing public services and facilitating the uniform system of mobile payment and transportation intelligence in Hungary as a state coordinator, heading towards in line with Hungary’s commitment to build “Intelligent Cities”, according to the EU directive “SCC3-2015 Development of system standards for smart cities and communities”, which shall provide highly efficient, interoperable and coordinated services across public and business sector for the wellbeing of Hungarian citizens.
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