The new service will work with Scotland's National Entitlement Card (NEC) and is supported by sQuid, the electronic money provider. National Express said the service provides an alternative means to traditional paper tickets and is simple and easy to understand. 'A travelling customer just loads their transit purse with value, and a deduction is made every time the card is used' said Lawrence Davie, Director for National Express Dundee, 'Working with the NEC smart card which is widely used in the region and distributes concessionary entitlements to bus travelers, means that we can now make paid-for travel a smartcard reality, and follows the completion of our smartcard reader installation on all our buses'.



sQuid provides the eMoney service for NEC smartcards and will do the same for the National Express Dundee travel purse. Adam Smith, sQuid's Chief Executive, said 'We are delighted to be working with National Express and their National Express Dundee operation. sQuid's aim is to provide intelligent smartcard payment services, and this new service is a great step forward. Customers simply register their cards and can top up the purse online, ready for use in retail shops, schools, council facilities and now for bus travel too.'



A number of Councils in Scotland already have sQuid eMoney on their cards. Sid Bulloch, who manages the NEC programme said: "We have issued over
1.5 million cards across Scotland. Service innovations like this are a great example of the public and private sectors working together, and adding real value for our citizens.'



The new service is expected to launch at the end of the year.