SIX MORE YEARS AS INIT RENEWS RELATIONSHIP WITH NCT
Added by Love Business East Midlands | 3 June 2025
UPDATED: 3 June 2025
CONTACTLESS ticketing and vehicle location technology provided by INIT will remain on Nottingham’s buses for a further six years after the operator renewed its contract with the firm.
The new agreement will see INIT provide Account Based Ticketing (ABT), enhancements of the planning, driver dispatching and rostering system, and an upgrade of the Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) system for Nottingham City Transport (NCT).
INIT – which has its UK operations headquartered in the city’s Lace Market area – has provided tracking and ticketing solutions for the operator Nottingham City Transport (NCT) for 21 years, most notably rolling out contactless payments during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.The initial phase – which included AVL systems - was expanded to provide NCT with a fully integrated system, including ticketing, service planning and driver dispatch.
The NCT and INIT relationship has further flourished in recent years, most notably with the timely introduction of contactless payments (cEMV) during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
The upgraded systems introduced as part of the extended partnership will include the replacement of the traditional Easyrider Card Based System with an Easyrider Account Based Ticketing solution. This will allow passengers to choose either card or mobile barcode for travel on NCT’s network, making it easier for them to manage their account, purchase or top up their travel products, as well as obtain their journey history in real time with greater ease.
Passengers can also have all their family members’ travel managed under one account and enjoy the same benefits. This will complement the existing contactless scheme, which always calculates the best value fare.
An additional element of the upgrade is to INIT’s MOBILE-ITCS nextGen automatic vehicle location system. This scalable, future-proof operations control system offers extensive functions and improved GUIs to assist NCT in providing a reliable network of services.
Jens Mullak, managing director of INIT, said:
“After 21 years of partnership, we’re delighted to continue our long-standing partnership with Nottingham City Transport, supporting one of the UK’s most forward-thinking public transport networks.
“This new SaaS agreement marks an exciting new chapter, bringing smarter, more seamless travel experiences to passengers through Account Based Ticketing and the next generation of cloud capable back office systems. By harmonising ticketing, AVL and planning and dispatching, we are not only improving convenience for passengers but also empowering NCT to operate more efficiently and responsively than ever before.”
Anthony Carver-Smith, Head of Marketing and Projects at Nottingham City Transport said,
“NCT and INIT have partnered for over 21 years, delivering high quality real time predictions to customers through the NCTX Buses app and website and a ticketing solution which saw the first multi modal, multi-operator capped contactless system introduced in the UK outside London. We are delighted to build on this success through our new six-year contract, which will see significant upgrades to both of these systems and our internal scheduling systems at the same time”.
The company – which is headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany – is one of the market leaders in transport technology, having last year won the contract to replace the existing Automatic Vehicle Location system (iBus) for Transport for London’s (TfL) buses.
It also rolled out daily contactless tickets using the Nottingham Contactless website across Nottingham City Transport (NCT), Nottingham Express Trams (NET) and the Linkbus network in 2022 - the first multi-operator ticketing system in the United Kingdom outside London.
For more information, visit init.co.uk
