The sharpening crisis in Europe’s transport networks is set to kick-start a massive increase in contactless smartcards, says a new report from Datamonitor, a London-based market analyst. Datamonitor’s E-ticketing Opportunities in European Travel, 1999-2003 predicts that today’s 885,000 European smartcard population will leap to 7.7 million by 2001 and over 45 million by 2003, driven largely by the realization that new e-ticketing systems can accelerate passenger transactions and reduce costs for struggling public transport operators.
