National Travel On The Cards

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Natl compatibility near for ICs
Imagine a single integrated circuit card you could use to pay for train and bus fares throughout most of the country. This is the goal of the Japan Railway group companies and other major transport service operators who sources say have decided to make the 10 types of IC cards they issue interchangeable. The envisaged service would allow businesspeople, tourists and other travelers to pay railway, subway and bus fares in many parts of the nation with the IC cards they regularly use at home. The companies plan to establish a study panel to examine the plan by the end of this year, and hope to make their cards interchangeable in spring 2013...Some IC cards are already interchangeable...In the Tokyo metropolitan area, Pasmo cards issued by railway, subway and bus services are interchangeable with Suica cards issued by JR East. In the Kansai region, JR West's Icoca is interchangeable with PiTaPa, available for a number of non-JR railway services in the region...JR Shikoku has not introduced IC card services, and there is no company or organization in the Shikoku region that is considering joining the study panel...more...