About our work and vison
Our founders, our board, our partners
The Smart Ticketing Alliance was founded in 2015 as the follow up to the EU-IFM (European Interoperable Fare Management) Project, which was funded by the European Commission under the 7th Community Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development.
Building on the International Standards that define systems and processes required to manage the distribution and use of fare products in an interoperable Public Transport environment, the EU-IFM Project aimed to create a European wide initiative dedicated to the establishment of attractive access to public transportation. This includes modern fare management which is safe, secure, reliable and convenient for both users and operators.
The STA is the trusted reference point of contact for ticketing in the public transport sector. The STA informs the standards making process and coordinates how public transport uses them. And the STA is recognised by a worldwide network of stakeholders as leader in the public transport smart ticketing environment.
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Our role in the ticketing eco-system
In order to ensure interoperability from a Standards perspective the STA makes use of standards and specifications published by Organisations for Standards, bodies such as CEN and ISO; and other membership bodies including GSMA, the NFC Forum. This document contains details of the reference documentation used in STA published documents.
Want to learn more? Download the STA Reference Documentation.
The STA works to achieve its mission and vision by:
Working with national and regional smart ticketing systems to create interoperable smart tickets.
Publishing the functional and technical requirements for smart ticket interoperability.
Establishment of trust systems, specifications and certification.
Verification of operators' compliance with business rules.
Cooperation with other European and international bodies to promote smart ticketing interoperability.
Meet our Executive Board
The STA is governed by a Executive Board, which is elected every three years. The last election took place at IT Trans in Karlsruhe, Germany, in May 2022. Chairpersons of the STA are Ralph Gambetta (chair), Carme Fabregas (vice chair) and Nils Zeino-Mahmalat (vice chair and treasurer).
Click on the pictures to get in touch with them via Linkedin.
Other bord members are Mohamed Mezghani, Steve Holden and Jean Seng.
Our founding members
The STA was founded in 2015 by the three European Ticketing standard publishers Calypso Networks Association, ITSO, and VDV eTicket Service, by the French Transport Innovation Agency AIT (formerly AFIMB/MINT) and the International Association of Public Transport (UITP).The vision: to promote and facilitate cooperation between national and regional Smart Ticketing schemes to establish interoperable Smart Ticketing in Europe and elsewhere.
Do you know our partners and liaisons?
To build an open and integrated platform for the planning, retailing, distribution and ticketing - covering all mobility services we work together with strong partners.
Global Platform
GlobalPlatform is a non-profit industry association. Members share a common goal to develop GlobalPlatform’s specifications, which are today highly regarded as the international standard for enabling digital services and devices to be trusted and securely managed throughout their lifecycle.
Cooperation between Global Platform and STA leads to optimum security in dealing with ticketing and information. This contributes to a key enabler in mobility: trust of the traveler.
International Union of Railways
As the worldwide professional association representing the railway sector and promoting rail transport, UIC promotes rail transport globally with the objective of responding effectively to current and future challenges relating to mobility and sustainable development.
The cooperation between UIC and STA focuses on door-to-door mobility and ticketing including the perspective of long distance railway transport beyond borders.
MaaS Alliance
The Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Alliance is a global public-private partnership creating the foundations for a common approach to Mobility as a Service, unlocking the economies of scale needed for successful implementation and take-up of MaaS in Europe and beyond.
The STA and MaaS Alliance liaison brings travellers a step closer to seamless mobility services, door to door. E-ticketing is an enabler for door-to-door mobility.
NFC Forum
The NFC Forum is a non-profit membership organisation formed to advance the use of Near Field Communication technology in consumer electronics, mobile devices and personal computers by: developing specifications, ensuring interoperability among devices and services, ensuring that products claiming NFC capabilities comply with NFC Forum specifications; and educating the market about such technology.
The STA and NFC Forum liaison contributes to ensure that not only travelling but also Ticketing, e.g. with mobile phones, is convenient and easy.
To accommodate the diversity in the sector, the STA offers membership options for public transport organisations as well as individual companies, suppliers and organisations supporting the STA.
Become a member and make travel seamless
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