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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