Global technical association, OSPT Alliance, today announces that its open, non-proprietary CIPURSE™ standard has been selected for a new automated fare collection solution trial across Moscow’s Skolkovo bus route. The trial will provide a secure and cost-effective ticketing solution for travelers between Moscow City’s business district and the city’s famed start-up and innovation hub, Skolkovo.

Utilizing the CIPURSE standard across the solution – including the card’s hardware and software, validators, and all ticketing vending machines – Elpass, a leading system integrator and transport ticketing solution provider in Russia, was able to realise a significantly reduced time to project launch and greatly simplified integration. The solution took just three months to develop and has already seen 1,600 cards issued and over 1,000 travelers welcomed in its first week.

“Russia’s transport ecosystem is unique in both its scale and complexity. For us, adopting industry standards offers the time and cost efficiencies necessary to best meet the challenges of this rapidly expanding market. With such a quick turnaround for this project, the maturity of the CIPURSE standard in transport ticketing made it an obvious choice,” comments Mr. Ruslan Zavgorodski, President of the Board of Directors, Elpass.

In addition to this initial trial service, Elpass hopes to extend this service into other regions across Russia. The CIPURSE Specification is built on proven standards, including ISO 7816 and ISO/IEC 14443-3, and utilizes AES encryption, ensuring its resistance to typical attacks. Fully form-factor agnostic, the standard offers an advanced foundation for developing secure, interoperable and flexible mobility solutions.

Mr. Zavgorodski continues, “CIPURSE’s interoperability and high level of security was central to our selection, too. Not only did it simplify the development of this end-to-end solution, but it offers us a platform to expand the solution easily, with guaranteed operational soundness.”

Philippe Martineau, President of the OSPT Alliance Board, adds: “This trial is a perfect illustration of the growing popularity of CIPURSE across Russia and the potential open standards can deliver in such a large market.

“For players like Elpass with growing domestic and international ambitions, CIPURSE empowers them to scale seamlessly with these aspirations, uninhibited by high integration costs and complexities. Serving Skolkovo’s innovative, tech-savvy commuters seems the fitting place to begin a trial and we look forward to continuing to support the adoption of our standard across adjacent regions and beyond.”