The Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) has selected IBM to create and implement the infrastructure for an Integrated Ticketing System (ITS) across all public transport in the greater Dublin area. The ITS Solution to be implemented in Dublin will use IBM's proven technology platform running Integrated Ticketing application software from MSI Global from Singapore.

Since MSI Global started its partnership with IBM , MSI has seen many more opportunities outside of Singapore such as Sao Paulo, Mumbai, Cairo and Adelaide to name a few. IBM Singapore provides full support to MSI for its go-to-market strategy in the regional market area.

The e-payment system will enable commuters to use a single pre-paid smart card for travel on all buses, trains, trams and coaches in the city. The next generation automatic fare collection solution has the capacity to process up to 2 million transactions a day and can be extended to include other value added services such as Internet top-ups and micro-retail payments. The new system is part of Ireland's "Transport 21" project, the largest investment ever in the country's transport system. Ireland plans to invest a total of 34 billion euro until the year 2015, to deliver world class transport to its citizens.

The ITS system eliminates the need to carry cash to pay for tickets, ensures fast, secure and convenient transactions and the smart card is simply "re-charged" as needed. It also makes for seamless travel and transfers across different operators and modes of transport and enables flexible fares and ticket products.

David O'Callaghan, Chairman of the Integrated Ticketing Project Board, which is tasked with overseeing the project, welcomed this significant development. "We are delighted to be able to link up with such a significant scheme as Singapore and to have a world leader like IBM overseeing the development," said O'Callaghan.

Work on the Dublin project begins immediately and a phased deployment of the live system will system will begin in late 2009.