Oyster Cards

[whole diary]

[jane s]

Isn't it about time we put real pressure on FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to accept Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) cards?

With the Central Line station at Shepherds' Bush about to close, the obvious alternative route would be FGW from Ealing Broadway to Paddington & then onto the Hammersmith & City - and there is no valid reason whatsoever that Oyster cards could not be used between Ealing Broadway & Paddington because the card readers ALREADY EXIST!

Also, to do so would make life a lot easier for the poor people at Greenford who would be able to have an Oyster card & then have a real choice between the Central Line, FGW & FGW on any given day, instead of wondering if their train will actually be running or not (I've noticed that the Greenford Branch trains are always the first to be cancelled!)

TFL^▸ (Transport for London) will pay for all the card readers so WHY are FGW not biting their hand off? Lets make them get their fingers out.....

[BandHcommuter]

Isn't it about time we put real pressure on FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to accept Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) cards?

TFL^▸ (Transport for London) will pay for all the card readers so WHY are FGW not biting their hand off? Lets make them get their fingers out.....

You can use Oyster travelcard seasons on FGW within the zones (I think West Drayton is the boundary).

For pay as you go (prepay), you can already use FGW from Greenford to Ealing Broadway (but not intermediate stations). It looks as though Ealing to Paddington will be added in the spring.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/tickets/oyster-PAYG-08-01-02.pdf

[jane s]

Excellent news!

I was just going by the large notices up at Ealing Broadways stating "Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) cards not valid on mainline services" - it would be much more helpful if they put up notices stating the true position!

[Ptolemy]

I saw some notices about this at Clapham Junction last week, where the situation is even more complicated. Some train operators accept Oysters^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) on certain routes (FGW^▸ (First Great Western) do, I believe). Others using the same station (SW Trains? Southern?) don't accept them at all. Clearly something which needs to be resolved in due course.

There's a fairly detailed discussion about this available by clicking here, if anyone's interested

[Ollie]

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) will be accepting Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services), but not expected to be fully accepted on the line until 2009.

It is down to TfL^» (Transport for London - about) to get the barriers and necessary equipment in place. It was part of the agreement that TfL sort out the installation.

[eightf48544]

Unfortunately this is a direct clash between TFL^▸ (Transport for London) and DfT^» (Department for Transport - about).

A bit of history, TFL went ahead with Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) before the DfT even knew what a smart card was, let alone that you could use it to operate station gates.

Unfortunately Oyster uses proprietory software and thus the supplier has a monopoly. This clashes with the Governments policy of standard software from different suppliers to prevent monopolies such as Tesco. It's a bit like Betmax VHS and Blueray HDV. Betamax was the better sysetm, VHS sold more units. ITSO is probably more versatile than Oyster but how many millions of Oyster cards are there? 

The DfT, therefore, mandated ITSO standard smart cards for the TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) to be the National Travelcard.

However because of the different software the readers have to be rigged to read both products at a cost of millions.

With Oyster being predominant in London (millions issued, hundreds of readers, it has become the  de facto  standard for smart travelcards)

However, as stated above, TOCs are mandated to adopt ITSO.

Hence I have some sympathy for FGW^▸ (First Great Western), why should they pay out for dual standard readers which will last a lot longer than their franchise? 

Captain Deltic has a piece on the situation at Waterloo mainline station in this month's Modern Railways.

At the moment it appears to be a standoff between TFL with Oyster who operate the de facto standard in London and DfT who want ITSO for the National card.

The only thing that is certain is that it will be us the travelling public and taxpayers who are going to have to pay to sort out the mess.

[Lee]

Recent Parliamentary Written Answer :

Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer of 29 November 2007, Official Report, columns 607-8W, on transport: tickets, what progress has been made to ensure smartcard readers in London are ITSO/Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) dual-operable.

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department for Transport continues to work closely with Transport for London to deliver the May 2006 agreement to make the Oyster estate interoperable with the ITSO smartcard standard, and to make Oyster Pay As You Go available on national rail in London. The detailed design and scoping study is still on target to deliver a fixed price and delivery schedule in April 2008 for the roll-out of ITSO/Oyster dual-operable smartcard readers.

[eightf48544]

As I said it's going to cost us!