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Project Oval: TfL win DfT contract to expand contactless system to 233 rail stations by May 2024, Railcards coming to contactless payment cards

SWT_USER

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What an absolute clown show. Ridiculous it takes this long - I guess they are already benefiting from the increased revenue so no rush to introduce the customer convenience aspect of the project.
 
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Starmill

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What an absolute clown show. Ridiculous it takes this long - I guess they are already benefiting from the increased revenue so no rush to introduce the customer convenience aspect of the project.
I wouldn't be too shocked to find it delayed again beyond September to be honest.
 

Haywain

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Good question, thread title implies will happen no later than 4 days time (by end of May 2024)
That was referring to the original scheduled completion of phase two, but phase one hasn't been implemented yet. I think there was originally intended to be around 18 months between the two phases, so it's still a long way off.
 

CyrusWuff

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With the Election having been called, there's unlikely to be an announcement from DfT - and likely the same for TfL - due to purdah rules.
 

MikeWh

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If data has been set up in the system ready for Sunday week then it'll happen anyway, unless every change being made gets canned.
 

JonathanH

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If data has been set up in the system ready for Sunday week then it'll happen anyway, unless every change being made gets canned.
Do you think there is a possibility it has been set up in the system?
 

MikeWh

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Do you think it has been set up in the system?
I don't know. Cubic's lead time is longer than 2.5 weeks. The DfT are famed for not announcing things until the week before. I guess there could be an instruction not to switch on any of the validators, unless they are already used for TOC smartcards?

There were some fares changes left in the system for a couple of years when the Liz line opening was shelved at the last minute.
 

Fazaar1889

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What actually makes it super difficult to roll out? In Guildford, there's the yellow pads. Can't you just like...add Guildford to the list. The yellow pads detect cards surely...
 

CyrusWuff

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What actually makes it super difficult to roll out? In Guildford, there's the yellow pads. Can't you just like...add Guildford to the list. The yellow pads detect cards surely...
At a guess, some sort of issue between the railway fares database and TfL and/or Cubic.

This is purely based on the presumed PAYG fares having started to appear on BRFares (which I appreciate isn't an official source) in June last year.
 

Haywain

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Today's the day! Fingers crossed.
You can uncross your fingers, as nothing will be happening today. Post #867 on this thread states that implementation of phase 1 is delayed until summer 2024 at the earliest.
 

PGAT

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You can uncross your fingers, as nothing will be happening today. Post #867 on this thread states that implementation of phase 1 is delayed until summer 2024 at the earliest.
Maybe tomorrow then :lol:
 

Haywain

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Maybe tomorrow then :lol:
No, and I am comfortable in asserting not in the next month. The thread title having a date is meaningless as the thread has noted several times that the date would be drifting.
 

Edvid

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Ticketing and Revenue Update 152 (April 2024) extracts below.

Page 5:
We still await final confirmation of the implementation of the phase 1 of Project Oval, which will see the extension of contactless payment for PAYG journeys to around 51 [sic] stations beyond the current zonal area. The first phase was originally scheduled to be delivered in December 2023, but has been delayed and now cannot be implemented before the June Fares Revision.
Said fares revision is scheduled for 9 June, on which some Oval work (quoted below) will also take place.

Page 3:
In preparation for delivery of the second and third stages of Project Oval later this year, Cubic will be adding base data for a further batch of stations planned to be covered within Phases 2A and 2B of the project.
So it appears Phase 2 will be split as noted above, though which stations go where is unknown. Not a surprise in light of how quick the implementation of Phase 1 hasn't been to date, but do they seriously believe all 233 (at present) stations will be sorted before next year? I can't see it.
 

etr221

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So it appears Phase 2 will be split as noted above, though which stations go where is unknown. Not a surprise in light of how quick the implementation of Phase 1 hasn't been to date, but do they seriously believe all 233 (at present) stations will be sorted before next year? I can't see it.
Has a list of the 233 been published somewhere, that I have missed, and which someone could point me to?
 

MrJeeves

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Has a list of the 233 been published somewhere, that I have missed, and which someone could point me to?
I put an overlay onto a Project Mapping map earlier in this thread in post 743.


Blue is existing PAYG network, with green being Phase 1 and yellow being Phase 2. I don't think a list or map split into 2a/2b has been released.

Seeing the "missed areas" is interesting. I note that the bits between Wivelsfield/Brighton and Lewes aren't included, while this is a permitted route from some stations within the zone to Brighton. Likewise, when the BML is closed and GTR run services to London via Littlehampton, things could prove interesting. Then again, these same issues already exist in the current PAYG system, such as Gatwick to Reading which could be made via the North Downs Line, but PAYG is only possible via London at present. I imagine that, in reality, staff will (hopefully) react with pragmatism. Either way, equalising PAYG and normal ticket prices within Oval should mean this isn't a huge problem.
 

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