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The Bilbao Tram Service will take part in the Barik trials, the new smartcard for public transport

26/04/04 - The equipment required to commence the trials is already being installed at the shelters of the Arriaga and Euskalduna stops. Customers of this transport service will join the 650 collaborators who have already been testing this card for Metro Bilbao, Bizkaibus and Bilbobus.

The Biscay Transport Consortium (BTC) has reached an agreement with EuskoTran to include the Bilbao Tram Service in the Barik pilot test, the new smartcard that will operate on Biscay public transport systems in the future. Customers of the transport service will be able to experience, from May onwards, how the Barik card operates at the Arriaga and Euskalduna stops, on line A. Therefore, the tram will become the fourth transport system to test this ticketing system that will revolutionise the way we relate with the Biscay public transport systems in the near future.

The Biscay Transport Consortium, the promoter of the project, and EuskoTran are selecting the group of people who will test the system installed at two tram stops. These people, who are being selected and trained, have heterogeneous profiles and may also access 4 Metro Bilbao stations (Moyua, Areeta, Barakaldo and Sopelana), 11 buses on two Bizkaibus lines (Mungia-Bilbao through the Artxanda tunnels and Bermeo-Mungia-UPV-Cruces) and 5 Bilbobus coaches on the Miribilla-San Inazio line.

This trial run is testing the technology that will allow passengers to access trams without having to take their ticket out of their wallet. This technology is based on the inclusion of a chip on a card, which is similar to a credit card, and that operates through radiofrequency waves, allowing the user to validate it by simply placing the card near the validation machine without having to introduce it. The pioneering aspect of Barik is that it will operate without any contact with the transport system and will only require contact when being recharged. It will be implemented, at the same time, on different transport systems -Metro Bilbao, EuskoTran, Bizkaibus and Bilbobus- and at two different banking environments (VISA and CECA), which is a novelty in Europe.

In this pilot phase, apart from the 4 Metro halls at the stations mentioned above, there will be over fifty recharging points at bank offices and BBK and BBVA automatic cash dispensers. Precisely, these two banks have intervened in the project in its financial aspects, while, in the transport sector, the Biscay Transport Consortium, the Basque Government, the Biscay Regional Government and the Council of Bilbao, involving the Bilbao Metro, Bizkaibus, Bilbobus and, now, EuskoTran, are participating in the implementation of this smartcard.


  
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