So far, a total of 35 providers, including the Ljubljana and Maribor city transport operators, have joined the project.

The project has been contracted by the Infrastructure Ministry and is being implemented by a consortium which includes railway operator Slovenske železnice and the Ljubljana and Maribor city bus operators LPP and Marprom.

In the trial period, the system will be used by secondary school and university students, with the former starting on 1 September and the latter one month later. Tickets will be put on sale next Monday.

Project manager Primož Kranjec told the press at Tuesday's presentation of the project that the solution was unique in the region.

"An integrated passenger system is organised at the national level and is based on electronic cards. Our solution is an innovation at the European level," he said.

Passengers will buy an electronic ticket, and the information will be transferred to the information system of the operator, which makes the integrated passenger transport system transparent.

Suzana Habjanič of the Infrastructure Ministry said that the system was efficient and that it would "enable passengers to switch between means of transportation as easily as possible."

She explained that secondary school and university students and adult education participants were the population groups that used public transportation the most.

"This is a pilot project, which includes the collection of data on the basis of which this ticket will be introduced for other categories of passengers," Habjanič added.

Representatives of transport providers have endorsed the project, expecting that it will encourage more people to use public transportation.

The project is worth EUR 3.96m and its maintenance in the first five years is expected to cost around EUR 1m.