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TICKETING


The Oyster card has revolutionised the way people travel in London, despite being originally conceived as a by-product of installing ticket gates. TfL’sWill Judge takes a look back…


T


he Oyster card was thought up in the mid-1990s when Transport for London’s predecessor, London


Regional Transport, saw a business case to invest in the network’s revenue collection system.


Head of future ticketing at TfL, Will Judge, explained: “The idea was driven by a need to replace some ageing infrastructure on some London buses and to finish gating the London Underground system.


“A project team was formed which went into discussions with various parts of the business – and with industry – and quickly found that smart cards were an emerging technology and a tool to address some of the downsides of gating on London Underground.”


Stations with ticket gates relying on mag- netic striped tickets tend to see fewer pas- sengers pass through them compared to those based on ‘trust’, where tickets are individually inspected, or not inspected at all. This may be because fewer passen- gers are illegally travelling without a ticket – but it may also be because fewer choose to travel, knowing they have to buy a ticket in advance and then queue at ticket gates.


Smart cards solve this problem, Judge said.


He explained: “Smart cards were added into the mix of this capital investment project as a means of mitigating one of the downside impacts of gating London Underground. So although you get a re- duction in passenger throughput when you gate, by introducing the chance to use a contactless smart card instead of a ticket you reduce the amount of time it takes to get each person through that gate.


“This means there is an overall net benefit in terms of speed for the passenger.


“This is very much the way it has played out. The obligations to introduce smart ticketing on London Underground were made part of the PFI contract, the vehicle by which this investment was delivered, which was signed in 1998. Since then TfL and its contractor have introduced the smart card. The customers love it and it has been a great success story.”


64 | rail technology magazine Feb/Mar 11 credit: Contactless payment card collector ‘kalleboo’


The main benefits for passengers are two- fold – speed and interoperability.


Judge explained: “Passengers really ap- preciate having one revenue collection system which spans all of the modes of public transport. This is such a vital point because it gives customers certainty.


“If your customer is planning a multi- mode trip then the customer has certainty that not only do they know what kind of ticketing system that they are going to use, but they know they have an appropriate ticket they can use on the second leg of their journey.


“This makes public transport a much more comfortable choice to make, rather than taking the car, at the margin. That inter- operability gives a real benefit in driving up the market share for public transport, which is what we all want to do.


“The second point is speed, which is really specific in terms of increasing throughput through the gate or getting people onto a train. Oyster has really delivered on that because we get a far better throughput on smart cards than we do with magnetic stripe tickets.


“The speed also relates to the reduction in hassle. For example, if a customer puts £50 of pay-as-you-go credit on their Oyster card, they have negated the need


to buy travel tickets everyday, which saves them time – and our customers’ time is valuable to us.


“I think the numbers speak for themselves in terms of how customers have bought into this idea; 80% of TfL trips these days are on Oyster. And for Londoners, and those who frequently travel in London, Oyster is the means of fare payment of choice by a country mile.”


So an unqualified success? Very nearly, Judge insists: “Oyster is not for everyone. There is no doubt there is a small minority of people who prefer to avoid technology and others who do not want the ‘data trail’ they see Oyster as leaving. However these people make up a tiny percentage of the overall group using TfL services.


“The vast majority of people think Oyster is exactly the kind of bold, technology- enabled initiative they want to see and are very happy using it.”


Naturally, there are benefits for the op- erator as well as for the passengers, from increased rider numbers to tackling over- crowding to reducing administration costs.


Judge took us through the plus points for TfL.


He said: “TfL enjoys three broad benefits.


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