The trial, which is already running on the Stagecoach bus network in Cambridgeshire, allows bus users to receive, store and validate their bus tickets using their mobile phone.

Everything Everywhere will be providing each customer involved in the trial, approximately 40, with an NFC-enabled handset. This will have a pre-loaded specially designed application that is compatible with the local bus network's smartcard readers.

The trial is using the Department of Transport's (DfT) preferred Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation (ITSO) standard for smart ticketing technology, which was laid out in its in March of this year.

Some £3.5 billion worth of efficiency savings are hoping to be delivered by 2019 through a number of Department of Transport initiatives, one of which is the use of smart ticketing.

It is hoped that by using the ITSO standards, this will allow for interoperability of NFC use across all rail and bus networks.