Contactless Model 2 is the type of contactless card payment that you experience when you travel on public transport in some large towns and cities. A good example of this in the UK is London.

Some Contactless Model 2 schemes require you to tap on when you board and then tap off when you get off. This makes it possible for the system to calculate how much to charge you for your journey between beginning and end. This is TOTO (Tap On, Tap Off) contactless.

Other Contactless Model 2 schemes are known Tap & Cap contactless, where you be charged a fixed amount (a ‘flat fare’) for every journey you take. The charge will usually be capped at a certain amount over a period like a day or a week.

This type of Contactless Model 2 payment method allows you to simply “tap” your contactless payment card (or device) onto a reader at the start of your journey. You don’t need to tap out at the end of your journey, with the fare being calculated automatically in the background.

This is different to Contactless Model 1 where the products you are buying are totalled up by the cashier, or a self-service machine, and you pay the total on the screen with your contactless payment card. If you want to buy a specific ticket on a bus or tram in the UK, you will use Contactless Model 1.

Contactless Model 1 is the type of contactless card payment that you experience in a retail environment, like a shop.

The products you are buying are totalled up by the cashier, or a self-service machine, and you pay the total on the screen with your contactless payment card.

When paying in this way on a bus, or a tram, you simply ask the driver for the ticket you want and they will issue it to you. If you don’t know what the name of the ticket is, then just tell the driver where you want to go and they will work out the best ticket for your journey.

Contactless Model 1 is available as a way to pay for a ticket on many buses around the UK. But it also often possible to pay with an alternative type of contactless payment called Contactless Model 2.

Contactless Model 2 contactless payment method usually takes one of two approaches:

• TOTO (Tap On, Tap Off) contactless
• Tap & Cap contactless

TOTO (Tap On, Tap Off) contactless allows you to simply “tap” your contactless payment card (or device) onto a reader at the start of your journey and “tap” again on a reader when you complete your journey, with the fare being calculated automatically in the background.

Tap & Cap contactless allows you to simply “tap” your contactless payment card (or device) onto a reader at the start of your journey. It does not require you to tap again to complete your journey.

In September 2019, the government set out how it would launch a revolution in bus services – delivering a better deal for bus users and committing to publishing a National Bus Strategy.

England’s first National Bus Strategy, called ‘Bus Back Better: national bus strategy for England’ was published in March 2021.

A PDF copy of the National Bus Strategy can be downloaded from the Department for Transport website.

Software as a service (SaaS) is a software distribution model in which a cloud provider hosts applications and makes them available to end-users over the internet.

This differs from more traditional models of accessing software, such as installing it onto a computer from a CD/DVD or download.

The software is usually accessed via a web browser or mobile app on desktop, mobile and tablet devices.

Read more about the benefits of SaaS in public transport.

PSD2 is a European regulation for electronic payment services. It seeks to make payments more secure in Europe, boost innovation and help banking services adapt to new technologies.

An online shop where apps can be found and downloaded to your mobile phone. The app store for Android devices is called the Play Store. The app store for Apple devices is actually called the ‘App Store’.

Bike share can be broadly defined as any setting where bicycles are pooled for multiple users. Models include Public Bike Share (PBS) – self-service on-street docked or dockless stations – workplace pool bikes, train/bus station hubs, loans, lockers and peer to peer sharing.

PBS schemes often make their bike and bay/dock locations available as a public API. This means that other apps can display them in real time. These APIs usually follow the General Bikeshare Feed Specification standard, making it easier for software teams to consistently use this data. GBFS is loosely based on the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS).

The scheme operator is usually the technology provider as well as the provider of the transportation service.

Some notable providers in the UK are Beryl and nextbike.

The NPTG is closely associated with the NaPTAN dataset and contains details of every city, town, village and suburb in Great Britain. This dataset is based on usage of names, rather than legal definitions and so includes local informal names for places as well as their official names.

As a topographic database of towns and settlements, it provides a common frame of reference for the National Public Transport Access Nodes (NaPTAN).

An open API from Traveline. The API allows users to access live departure information by stop across Great Britain. Real-time information is provided where it is available and scheduled departures where not.

The API is based on the SIRI standard, using the SIRI-SM function through a request/response communication mechanism. SIRI is an XML protocol that allows the exchange of real-time information about public transport services and vehicles.

The National Operator Code dataset (NOC) contains unique national operator codes that link to the local operator codes in the Traveline National Data Set (TNDS) and NextBuses API. NOC’s are primarily required for BODS and used for Passenger’s TXC and SIRI feeds. The NOC is also used to convert local regional operator codes that might exist in exports from the Traveline regions to TNDS, or in real-time feeds to the NextBuses API, to a single universal operator identity and associated code.

To look up a National Operator Code you can search the NOC database, hosted by Traveline.