APPENDIX 19
Memorandum submitted by Transport for
London
OYSTER CARD
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Transport for London (TfL) introduced
Oyster, London's travel smartcard, to the public in June 2003.
Travelcards and Bus Pass season tickets can be put on the card,
and it can also be used as a pay as you go system (known as Oyster
Pre Pay). Oyster cards with Travelcards are valid on Tube, Docklands
Light Railway, tram and National Rail services within designated
zones and can be used across the entire London bus network.
2. What are the benefits of Oyster?
2.1 There are a number of benefits with
using Oyster. Customers save time when passing through the station
gates and boarding buses is quicker. Oyster is also helping to
cut queues at Tube station ticket offices as passengers can top
up their Oyster cards online or over the phone. An additional
benefit of this is that Tube station ticket staff can spend more
time working on station platforms enabling them to interface directly
with customers therefore helping passengers with their journeys.
Oyster offers greater counterfeit protection than paper tickets
with the ability to "stop" lost or stolen Oyster cards
so that no one else can use them. This provides TfL with an estimated
fraud saving of £2 million per year. In addition to this,
the new fares announced by the Mayor in January 2006 mean single
journeys are either cheaper or frozen at last year's prices and
cheaper day travel is available with daily price capping.
2.2 Regrettably, at present, it is not possible
to use Oyster Pre Pay on the majority of National Rail routes
in London.[7]
3. What has TfL done to actively pursue a
fully integrated fare structure in London?
3.1 TfL has made a number of attempts to
enable Train Operating Companies (TOCs) to take up Oyster. Before
Oyster went live Train operators refused an offer from TranSys[8]
to provide Oyster retailing capability at all London rail stations
free of charge. As a result of this decision customers cannot
get Oyster at over 250 rail stations in London (out of a total
of 304 stations).
3.2 In 2004, TfL offered to finance £25
million worth of TOC investment in smartcard infrastructure required
to extend Oyster Pre Pay to all rail stations throughout fare
zones 1-6. This offer was refused, but had it gone ahead the infrastructure
could have been in place by the end of 2006. In 2005, the TOCs
estimated the cost of implementing Oyster Pre Pay at £65
million. TfL believe that this is an inflated figure, because
the proposal covers long standing National Rail fare and revenue
control issues. Although an attempt to solve these issues, it
is at the expense of delaying public access to Oyster.
3.3 In 2005, TfL invested £500,000
to survey National Rail stations in anticipation of the extension
of Oyster Pre Pay to all stations in zones 1-6.
3.4 Also in 2005, many TOCs refused to review
station drawings related to installation of equipment for extending
Oyster to stations within zones 1-6. One TOC even demanded to
be paid for the time of the personnel required to perform the
review.
3.5 TOCs have raised concerns over the potential
for fraud and revenue control risks with the use of Oyster on
National Rail. TfL believe that this possibility has been overstated
by TOCs. Evidence from the DLR and other works show that these
risks can be managed and do not prevent progress.
4. Why did TfL progress Oyster ahead of a
National scheme?
4.1 Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation
(ITSO) is the smartcard ticketing standard supported by the Department
for Transport (DfT). The DfT is unwilling simply to agree to extend
Oyster Pre Pay to train services in London because it would like
any extension of smartcard ticketing to be based on the ITSO standard.
Oyster is a system from one manufacturer: ITSO is an open standard
and any manufacturer could make compatible equipment.
4.2 When London Transport awarded the contract
in 1998 for smartcard ticketing (prior to TfL being established),
ITSO had not been developed. The alternative would have been to
delay the contract award which would have delayed passenger benefits
and network improvements until ITSO was mature. Indeed, passengers
would still be waiting.
4.3 TfL will come on board with ITSO when:
— It is secure enough to handle financial
transactions.
— It does not degrade the performance
of the existing system.[9]
— There is no cost to TfL as a result
of implementing ITSO.
4.4 TfL has assured the TOCs and DfT that
Oyster devices could be modified to accept ITSO products when
they are proven. As detailed above, TfL strongly feels that standards
and funding are long term issues with ITSO. In the mean time,
Oyster is being used for more than half of Underground journeys
and almost half of all bus journeys. Therefore the London wide
implementation of Oyster would now be in the best interests of
the travelling public.
5. What could TOCs do immediately to improve
access to Oyster?
5.1 TOCs could do a number of things in
the short term to improve access to Oyster. For example, two-part
season tickets could be offered. This would involve a paper ticket
for the part of the journey outside London and an Oyster card
for the part inside London.
5.2 Train operators could also have Pre
Pay enabled at 35 non-jointly operated, gated stations. This would
increase the number of train passengers making single or return
journeys that could use Oyster.
6. CONCLUSION
6.1 In total, 2.9 million people currently
use Oyster and more than 3 million journeys are made each day
with the card. Fare incentives introduced in January 2006 make
Oyster even more attractive. The use of Oyster means passengers
can take advantage of cheaper pre-pay fares and lower daily price
capping. Passengers on lines where Oyster is not available cannot
take advantage of these benefits.
6.2 With continued growth in customer demand,
TfL wants to encourage the TOCs to integrate the system to include
all public transport in London. TfL have made it clear that when
standards are proven we will be willing to come on board with
ITSO. In the mean time, many customers are missing out on the
benefits provided by Oyster.
January 2006
7 There are currently 10 National Rail routes where
Pre Pay is valid. Back
8
TranSys is the contracting consortium which provides the Prestige
Project, a 17 year private finance initiative awarded in 1998
to cover almost all aspects of TfL's ticketing infrastructure. Back
9
For example, Oyster takes 0.2 seconds to transact/open the gates.
Preliminary trials on London buses to assess the use of ITSO show
it currently takes 3 times longer to register/read than Oyster. Back
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