Go North East selects Corethree to offer mobile ticketing to bus passengers

Go North East, part of the Go Ahead Group and leading bus operator in the North of England, has partnered with Corethree to develop a mobile ticketing solution for passengers.

Go North East (GNE) has a fleet of 660 buses and provides local public transport services carrying over 72 million passengers per year. With a reputation for implementing innovative technology GNE is continually seeking to improve operational efficiencies and the experience of passengers.

The Corethree mobile platform, Core Engine, delivers both service information and mobile ticketing to Go North East passengers, on the move. These services natively manifest themselves on iPhone, Blackberry and Android smartphone devices.

Dave Lynch, Group Technology and Procurement Director at the Go Ahead Group, whilst discussing the Corethree solution, commented, “We at the Go Ahead Group are constantly looking at new ways to improve and innovate our services for our customers. In a fast moving and connected society we’re fully aware of the importance of smartphones and their rapid up-­‐take. We wanted to offer a solution that would provide our customers with a greater choice and flexibility when it comes to their travel needs.

M-­‐tickets are a natural extension of our successful key branded smart media retail platform and will be available through customers’ mobile phones, making it simple, convenient and safe to buy new or ‘top up’ existing tickets.”

The solution also provides CRM, loyalty and business intelligence functionality to help enhance Go North East’s services.

In addition to these many benefits, Go North East were very specific in their instruction that the mobile solution needed to be fraud resilient. To this end, Corethree have devised a multi-­‐layer solution that incorporates variables such as colour, words and moving digital watermark into the m-­‐ticket. M-­‐tickets are clear and simple to view by GNE staff, but present a highly complex conundrum to anyone wishing to copy it illegally. These anti fraud variables automatically change at a frequency specified by GNE, such as every hour, day or week.

It was also paramount that users can access their purchased tickets when in off-­‐ line mode, should they find themselves outside of WIFI or 3G coverage they can still activate their tickets and use them effortlessly. Corethree, using the power of their patent pending Core Engine platform, are able to provide this facility to Go North East passengers to ensure a fully accessible system.

The mobile solution is currently in acceptance testing, with launch planned for later in Q1 this year.