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[Monty]

Are you sure?
I am working on a contract at present looking at various ways of implementing PAYG on a national scale

I can confirm this also, the latest brief I had recieved was there is at present no plans for a national PAYG system for the ITSO smartcards.

 

[jon0844]

That's a real shame. One single card system (even if cards can carry different designs) would increase the uptake and avoid confusion.

It's also easier to carry just one card than loads for every TOC or part of the country.

 

[snail]

Supermarkets really are frighteningly desperate to get rid of staff, aren't they?" hock: Do these people not make enough money as it is, they really feel the need to take such extreme measures?

Yes, while they are at it, they should get rid of barcode scanning and go back to having everyone queue at a counter and wait while the assistant collects their items and calculates the total with a pad and pencil.

NFC/RFID is no more than an extension of barcoding, but with greater flexibility as more information can be coded on the chip to help stores manage stock. It may reduce the number of till operators required but its main purpose is to improve accuracy and cut down on queuing times. Ask someone with a loaded trolley if they would rather push it through an automated scanner or faff around unloading and reloading their goods I know what the majority would want.

I think it's called progress.

 

[jon0844]

Yup. I now shop almost exclusively at Waitrose to self scan and walk out having packed as I shopped.

Sadly the convenience will mean lots of job losses, including the flexible ones that many people rely on.

To keep on topic, the same will happen on the railway. In fact, drivers and perhaps revenue/security officers may be the only jobs left one day.

 

[rdwarr]

Drivers? Even cars can manage without them now.

 

[jon0844]

NOOOOOOOO... Don't let us start talking about that.

 

[34D]

That's a real shame. One single card system (even if cards can carry different designs) would increase the uptake and avoid confusion.

It's also easier to carry just one card than loads for every TOC or part of the country.

In theory, an itso 'wallet' should be usable on any of the schemes nationally example load cash in edinburgh and use it in bristol area, but probably not work for an edinburgh-bristol journey.

 

[OwlMan]

I can confirm this also, the latest brief I had recieved was there is at present no plans for a national PAYG system for the ITSO smartcards.

Of course "there is at present no plans for a national PAYG system" does not mean that in fifteen/twenty years the next wave of franchises will not have PAYG terms written into them along with a complete reworking of the fares system

 

[Brucey]

There are quite a few things to consider if there was a fully national "top up and touch in" system, like Oyster.

The biggest problem would be dealing with people not touching out at the end of the journey. Deduct the maximum fare of around £1000?

In the near future, I can only see smartcards as being a medium to store tickets on a national scale.

 

[swt_passenger]

The problem (as always) in this debate, is that people are not specific in what they are asking for.

A stored balance PAYG system (like Oyster) that works in the same way nationally, ie works everywhere in the country, is not necessarily the same thing as saying it should also allow for every possible journey between any two stations to be paid for by means of a PAYG deduction.

 

[mattdickinson]

There are no plans for a national PAYG system, so the ticket would still have been loaded before travel at the ticket machine, ticket validator (or ticket office).

At the moment, announced schemes for PAYG are:

Oyster to Shenfield, Hertford and Slough
all of Merseyrail
all of Southern
NESTI covering the north east of England.

It's uncertain which products SEFT covering the South East will offer.