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Virgin Trains IT director heads off to Atos Orgin
Lured by e-ticketing and Near Field Communications…

By Andy McCue

Published: Wednesday 13 April 2005

The IT director of Virgin Trains has left to take up a position focusing on the development of an e-ticketing system for the UK transport industry at IT services company Atos Origin.

Jeremy Acklam started as e-ticketing solutions manager at Atos Origin this week after eight years at Virgin Trains.

Initially, Acklam will be working on bids and projects for various regional mobile and smartcard ticketing systems, but of longer-term interest is a technology called Near Field Communication (NFC).

NFC is an authentication mechanism that sets up a wireless connection so that information – such as an e-ticket - can be transmitted to and read on a mobile handset.

"That technology has yet to come to fruition, but it is being trialled in Germany on a rail line from Hanover to Frankfurt. NFC begins to address a big issue for customers who can't read ticketing information on existing smartcards," said Acklam.

He said it will take some time for NFC to roll through into mobile phones in the UK, but said Atos Origin may look at an NFC e-ticketing trial in the transport sector in the near future.

Acklam, who is also a member of silicon.com's CIO Jury user panel, said he took the decision to leave Virgin Trains having overseen the successful end to a six-year project to completely revamp the rail operator's systems.