The City of York Council is to launch a new concessionary SMART travel scheme for disabled residents allowing users to pay for taxi fares with a smartcard.

The York Taxicard is a secure smartcard designed to replace transport tokens and is an alternative to the National Bus Pass. The smartcard will be scanned at the beginning and end of the journey and the subsidiary and fare is simultaneously deducted from the overall allowance.

The new system, which is designed and operated by specialist smart media company Ecebs, uses ‘Smartcare’ technology and is designed to assist in fraud prevention, cut down on administration and provide a future-proof pathway for additional smart services.

“Smart services save costs, are more secure and make life easier for users – and New York is at the forefront of innovation with this scheme,” said David Burdett, managing director of Ecebs.

One advantage of the scheme is that flexibility of the technology that will allow for future development without users having to change their cards. The cards are also unique to the individual and so are resistant to fraud.   

The initial roll-out of this scheme will involve the distribution of 2,500 Ecebs Pearl smartcards, 100 mobile readers to the two participating taxi operators as well as training and on-going support.