Select Committee on Transport Minutes of Evidence


Examination of Witnesses (Questions 260-262)

MR DAVID MAPP, MR PAUL SMITH, MR TONY COLLINS, MR GRAHAM LEECH AND MR CHRISTOPHER GARNETT

30 NOVEMBER 2005

  Q260  Clive Efford: But is that acceptable? People from my constituency, for instance, will not be able to access the full discounts offered by the Oyster card because of the rail companies' failure to adopt the system.

  Mr Smith: The rail companies have adopted the system, but one of the issues is the cost of doing it and what the benefits are and what the implications are, and this group is actually looking at that.

  Q261  Clive Efford: But the implications for the travelling public are that they will not be able to access the discounts. Is that acceptable?

  Mr Smith: But there is a huge cost associated with putting the equipment in. We are talking to TfL, we are talking to TfL regularly, and there is an offer from them there which we have looked at. TfL's proposition was that we should move to prepay, not with gates as LUL is, and gates give the control, but with a system of validators. The validators are expensive and we feel there ought to be more of those and it is those costs particularly—

  Q262  Chairman: I tell you what would be nice, if you could give us a detailed note, which will help Mr Efford, of exactly what the problems are, exactly what the timetable is and exactly when you expect to come up with it.

  Mr Smith: We would be happy to do that.

  Chairman: Thank you very much. Gentlemen, you have been, as always, very informative. We may have one or two other questions to put to you in writing. Thank you very much.





 
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