Rob Noble, an Australian, joined the MTR as Transport Planner in 1976, and subsequently became the Marketing and Planning Director. One of his key responsibilities was ticketing, being intimately involved with MTRs magnetic multi-ride and stored value tickets, the precursors to the Octopus. Sometimes called "the Father of Octopus", he was in the right place at the right time to be the driving force in cajoling the five major public transport operators to set up Octopus Cards Ltd (OCL) in 1994. He was the first CEO of OCL. He has a Bachelor of Civil Engineering Degree, a Masters Degree in Transportation Science, and an MBA, the latter from the University of Hong Kong. Noble was the key "insider", and gained unique insights and understandings of the Octopus project over a 10-year period from the time contactless smart card technology first emerged in the early 1990s, till leaving OCL in 2001.
Description
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1 From Smart Idea to Launch
Chapter 2 Getting Up to Speed
Chapter 3 Revving Up Off-Road Vehicles
Chapter 4 Spreading the Tentacles Wide and Far
Photo section
Chapter 5 Getting Better All the Time
Chapter 6 Numbers Show Octopus Success
Chapter 7 Recalcitrant Players
Chapter 8 Bumps in the Road
Chapter 9 Benefits for All
Chapter 10 Singapores EZ-Link Card
Chapter 11 Londons Oyster Card
Chapter 12 Seouls Tmoney Card
Chapter 13 Tokyos Suica Card
Chapter 14 Lessons Learned from Five Schemes
Chapter 15 A Cashless Future?
Conclusions
Glossary of Acronyms
Appendices