oyster idea

[ess]

oyster is always sold as speeding up getting through the ticket barriers. why aren't national rail season travelcards from outsize zones 1-9 sold as a paper ticket to the zone 6 boundary and an oyster card for within the zones? it seems a really easy way of solving queues without much fuss. has this been proposed before?

 

[LexyBoy]

Oyster is aimed more at avoiding queues to get tickets rather than speeding passage through the barriers per se. I don't think a paper travelcard takes any longer to use than Oyster, at least for regular users.

 

[Mojo]

Oyster is aimed more at avoiding queues to get tickets rather than speeding passage through the barriers per se. I don't think a paper travelcard takes any longer to use than Oyster, at least for regular users.

Oyster cards that work definitely help speed up people's passage through ticket gates. I'd say the reason this isn't the case is because it would require the Tocs to invest in Oyster capability for their ticket machines, which is something they don't want to do; it took long enough to get it brought in within the zones, with encouragement and financial support from DfT/TfL.

The number of failed paper Gold cards is absolutely shocking.

 

[jd]

There's probably a fraudlent travel risk too?

No 1 goes through with the Oyster, No 2 rolls up to the side gate with the paper ticket claiming he's lost the Oyster and the kindly staff let him through.

 

[Dolive22]

Side gate staff 'That's ok, well just go and get a new oyster issued and cancel the old one'...'Hey what's this, someone's used your oyster card to go through, where did you lose it?' No 2 'That's odd, it must have been stolen' Staff 'that's alright, this station has CCTV and this tells me what gate they used and when, I'll just pull up the CCTV and pass it to BTP, just stay here while I get a police officer to take your crime report'

(later)

No 1 'Why the hell did you tell them it was nicked, I've just been arrested!'

 

[paul1609]

oyster is always sold as speeding up getting through the ticket barriers. why aren't national rail season travelcards from outsize zones 1-9 sold as a paper ticket to the zone 6 boundary and an oyster card for within the zones? it seems a really easy way of solving queues without much fuss. has this been proposed before?

"Southern is now focusing on the introduction of smart card ticketing in 2012. The technology of these cards is similar to London’s Oyster Card but will be in use across the entire Southern network. Smart ticketing offers great flexibility as you will be able to purchase tickets online and the have your card updated at a ticket gate, ticket machine or card validator. If a card fails or is lost it can be replaced almost immediately and your account will be protected." ditto Southeastern and SWT paper tickets are doomed in the South East within 5 years.

 

[LexyBoy]

There's probably a fraudlent travel risk too?

No 1 goes through with the Oyster, No 2 rolls up to the side gate with the paper ticket claiming he's lost the Oyster and the kindly staff let him through.

No 2: "Here's my ticket to Z6 boundary, unfortunately I losted my Oyster"
Gateline staff: "That's interesting sir, now please wait while I fill in this PF form..."


I'm not sure passengers would appreciate having to have two tickets where one used to suffice anyway. It might work better if commuter routes could have the whole season on Oyster and staff had readers (as happened on NR before PAYG was allowed). This could apply to e.g. the whole of Thameslink, c2c, lots of SWT (!) etc. Shouldn't be too expensive since only ticket office and on-board staff would need readers.

(Obviously there are problems with this approach too...)
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Southern is now focusing on the introduction of smart card ticketing in 2012. The technology of these cards is similar to London’s Oyster Card but will be in use across the entire Southern network. Smart ticketing offers great flexibility as you will be able to purchase tickets online and the have your card updated at a ticket gate, ticket machine or card validator. If a card fails or is lost it can be replaced almost immediately and your account will be protected.

That's interesting, I assume it won't be compatible with SWT's smartcard system or Oyster?

 

[Dolive22]

My understanding is that National Rail are digging their heels in on Oyster because there is a plan to introduce a different specification of card for national rail and they don't want 2 systems fouling things up. I'm inclined to think that Oyster may be due for replacement quite soon (with a long switchover period) to a better technology, and that should be the national standard. That way you could have your Merseyrail card 'Oystered' by arrangement at any ticket office or when touching in, or even just use it as an oyster if you happen to be in London and all your tickets would be on the card. It could work out whether you are best off with a NR ticket partway and then Oyster or Oyster all the way. Then people wouldn't have much incentive to try anything clever and would just use oyster. The only problem is the cost of NR tickets, which could easily use up more than the maximum oyster credit.

 

[jd]

I thought everybody else was going to use the ISO standard, and TfL flatly refuse to be involved in that because it takes a second or two to read cards, thus holding up their very fast gatelines atm?

 

[Dolive22]

That's my understanding jd

 

[Aictos]

"Southern is now focusing on the introduction of smart card ticketing in 2012. The technology of these cards is similar to London’s Oyster Card but will be in use across the entire Southern network. Smart ticketing offers great flexibility as you will be able to purchase tickets online and the have your card updated at a ticket gate, ticket machine or card validator. If a card fails or is lost it can be replaced almost immediately and your account will be protected." ditto Southeastern and SWT paper tickets are doomed in the South East within 5 years.

I'm a firm believer in the use of SmartCard Technology as it means making travelling easier and quicker for passengers and encourage more to use rail services by simply removing the hassle from buying paper based tickets.

Hopefully by 2015, this technology will be rolled out across most of the UK.

 

[Greenback]

I'm a firm believer in the use of SmartCard Technology as it means making travelling easier and quicker for passengers and encourage more to use rail services by simply removing the hassle from buying paper based tickets.

Hopefully by 2015, this technology will be rolled out across most of the UK.

I remain a bit of a Luddite on smartcards, but then I can't see how digital TV is any better than analogue!

 

[tbtc]

"Southern is now focusing on the introduction of smart card ticketing in 2012. The technology of these cards is similar to London’s Oyster Card

I hope it's "identical" and not "similar".

Oyster works. Simple as that.

We tried a similar system called "Yorcard" in Sheffield (buses on my local route had card readers). It was a disaster. Part of the reason for it not working is that the PTE decided to do their own thing (instead of buying a proven technology). Since Oyster has ironed out all the teething issues, I think we should be adapting it for other schemes (not introducing alternatives)

 

[swt_passenger]

That's interesting, I assume it won't be compatible with SWT's smartcard system or Oyster?

DfT require all TOC smartcards to be ITSO compliant, and therefore compatible with each other. Despite what some posters are saying TfL are also under an obligation to read ITSO cards via the Oyster system - it is being developed now.

From the TfL funding settlement back in October:

Continued funding will be made available to support the ITSO on Prestige project to make TfL’s Oyster estate interoperable with national smartcard specifications, in accordance with the ITSO on Prestige agreement dated 28 May 2009.

This was the root cause of SWT 'dragging their heels' because their franchise contract stated that TfL would adapt in time for SWT to introduce ITSO cards.

Southern and Cross Country's existing franchises already require them to deal with SWT's system in their shared route areas.

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

ditto Southeastern and SWT paper tickets are doomed in the South East within 5 years.

So you keep suggesting, except paper tickets will still have to be processed for people travelling nationally on through tickets, as on LU. Mag stripe readers can't disappear from LU, and the SE until the whole country is changed to ITSO cards - and even then I'd be surprised if paper didn't remain available for occasional rail users. Should the 'railway' discourage the once a year passenger if he hasn't changed to plastic yet?