Japanese IT giant Fujitsu has secured £7m worth of contracts to upgrade ticket office machines and mobile handsets across the Wales & Borders rail network.
As well as the £1.5m ticketing related contract, Transport for Wales, which is the Welsh Government's at arm's length transport body and last year awarded a new 15-year Wales & Borders franchise to KeolisAmey, has also given Fujistu a five year support and maintenance contract for new hardware worth an additional £5.1m.
Transport for Wales said the new star ticket office machines installed by Fujitsu, will provide a more efficient ticketing system for customers at railway stations, enabling tickets to be issued faster.
The machines will be smart enabled so staff can add season tickets to customer smart cards, giving rail passengers the option of using secure paperless tickets
In addition, train and station staff handsets will be replaced with Fujitsu’s STARmobile technology, allowing staff to provide passengers with improved travel information on board trains, so passengers can better plan their journeys.
Colin Lea, customer experience director for Transport for Wales, said: “We’re delighted to announce this partnership with Fujitsu and look forward to seeing our retail offer improve significantly over the coming months.
"With passenger numbers continually rising, it’s important that we are providing the best solutions to improve the rail experience, for both our employees and our customers.
“This new, faster and more effective ticketing system will make travelling by train in Wales and the borders easier and allow us to bring forward new forms of ticketing in the future such as ‘pay as you go’, where customers will automatically get the best fare by just tapping in and out with a card.”
Paul Patterson of Fujitsu, said: “Helping to deliver a more efficient ticketing system for our customers means we can play our part in helping them transform their passengers experience and ultimately support the Welsh economy grow. now and in the future.”
