Proposal to phase out paper tickets by 2020 - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[stuving]

Did anything actually happen today to make this two-year-old thread news again?

Recently it was announced that the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) was abandoning the initiative. So yes, there was a relevance to restarting the thread.

I can't help thinking it would have been a lot less confusing for everyone if that bit of information had been provided when the thread was restarted.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks for your comment, stuving.

Looking back over the previous posts on this particular topic, I note that it has generally been an 'ongoing discussion' - so I have now renamed the thread accordingly.

I, too, have sometimes dredged up a rather old topic, in order to link it to a current item of news.  Purely in the interests of continuity and clarity, obviously. 

However, may I take this opportunity to encourage all of our contributing members to continue to update any old topics on the Coffee Shop forum, if they find something useful / interesting / amuzing to add to our discussions here?

I am always available to amend topic headings, or merge topics, if that will help.  CfN. 

[ChrisB]

Did anything actually happen today to make this two-year-old thread news again?

Recently it was announced that the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) was abandoning the initiative. So yes, there was a relevance to restarting the thread.

Can you point to any source for this? As a TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) recently told me that it is NOT the case at all....

[John R]

The DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) are passing responsibility of the project  to the RDG^▸ (Rail Delivery Group, or Reading station, depending on context) (as noted in the following link https://www.railnews.co.uk/news/2017/04/20-nao-highlights-smart-ticketing-failings.html). 

I've seen comment elsewhere that this is considered to be a considerable back-pedalling on a project that is hugely over budget and late -  move a failing project away from control of the DfT so that when it is descoped and funding cut the finger pointing is deflected.

[ChrisB]

Indeed, but the RDG^▸ (Rail Delivery Group, or Reading station, depending on context) are still responsible for it to the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)....and I understand at least some of the development to be complete well begore the year stated

[John R]

You asked why the OP^▸ (Original Poster / topic starter, or Off Peak, depending on context) had resurrected the thread, and I (trying to be helpful, and knowing I had read it somewhere) suggested the reason why that might be the case. Then, not content with that, you asked for evidence. Again, I looked online and found something that was related. Again, you argued over whether or not it is true, which is incidental to your original challenge as to why the thread was reopened.

Having now dug around further, I've found the online version of where I originally read it, namely the Sunday Times last week.

A government scheme to expand smart ticketing on busy rail lines has been scrapped after costs more than doubled despite most train operators failing to adopt it, according to the spending watchdog.

The Department for Transport has been forced to close a project for Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services)-style tickets across southeast England despite spending £54 million on the scheme, £9 million more than the original budget.

So, whether or not the article is true, it does seem reasonable that the thread was restarted.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks for your update, John R. 

For completeness, here is a link to that particular article in the Sunday Times - but you will need to register to read their full text.