Good to see that the government's plans for smartcards are going well.
According to Modern Railways...
Michael Leach has left the smartcard organisation ITSO, where he was Chief Executive Officer.
And last night Captain Deltic tweeted...
ITSO CEO has resigned today and left with immediate effect.
Perfect timing!
What with today's Command Paper expected to focus on the benefits of ITSO and smart ticketing.
This from Thomas Edmonson
Show some spunk Boris old fruit!
The Department of Transport has vetoed First Capital Connects plan to extend the Oyster Card with all its many benefits to rail travellers from St Albans, Hertford North and Welwyn Garden City and intermediate stations.
Instead travellers from Herts will have to wait for the incredibly superior (shome mishtake shurely? Ed) ITSO Card, allegedly available from 2014.
Naturally, the pusillanimous bus-bandits have folded.
Time for SUPER MAYOR to make it clear to Marsham Street that if London & South East Commuters want Oyster, Oyster they shall have.
He could take the new Boris bus to Welwyn to raise morale. Remember Kennedy bringing succour to isolated Berlin - 'Ich bin ein Shredded Wheat' should do the trick..
There must be a vote in it somewhere.
UPDATE: This from Sinoda...
From the latest update on the Abellio Greater Anglia website:
"The extension of Oyster Pay as You Go to 10 additional stations on the Shenfield and Hertford East lines will be introduced as will information kiosks which will be added to help customers at the larger stations".
Meanwhile, from an an internal Greater Anglia staff Q&A document
Q: Is there any commitment to install ITSO (smart ticketing) during this franchise?
A: There’s no formal commitment to doing this and other than extending Oyster to Shenfield and Hertford East we have no plans for ITSO, which may be part of the longer-term Greater Anglia franchise specification.
Q: Given that Oyster is being extended to Shenfield and Hertford East, will our ticket offices have the facilities to top-up people’s cards and deal with any related issues? Otherwise it will cause frustration for customers and we won’t be able to give the good customer service we’d like to give.
A: Thanks for raising this; the team will investigate the matter for you so please watch this space.
So it appears that the good citizens of Hertford must give up their allegiance to the upstart Great Northern Railway services from North Station to London, and instead 'travel by Great Eastern' sorry, 'Greater Anglia' where their Oyster Cards will (very soon) be happily accepted.
This from the BBC...
London commuters will be able to use pay-as-you-go Oyster cards on the city's suburban overland rail network by early next year, officials said.
The devil's in the detail - still no start date.
UPDATE: This from John Bull over at London Reconnections...
Official announcement is likely to happen next week - which is conveniently AFTER Mayor's Question time (tomorrow).
Means Boris doesn't have to answer awkward questions from his betters (Shawcross, Pidgeon etc.) on why he completely bottled it in the negotiations and allowed the TOCs to force Oyster Extension Permits on him.
This just in from Captain Deltic...
Good to see that the extension of Oyster PYG from my home station, a mere 20 miles from Kings Cross, is going so well!
Via Twitter...
Exciting announcement on smart cards (like Oyster) for all public transport in the UK...
Quite so minister.
Although not entirely 'like Oyster'.
Oyster works.
Whilst ITSO, on the other hand...
Are DafT undertakings worth the paper they are written on?
In the South Central Franchise consultation document Daft glibly asserts that:
In London, the Oyster smartcard is already accepted for season tickets, and from 2009 Oyster pay as you go (PAYG) will be valid on all national rail services in London.
Alas.
The delivery deficient department has now made it clear that this won't happen till 2010.
Provoking predictable fury from London's TravelWatch:
“Passengers at railway stations around the capital are walking past covered up, unused Oyster machines every day, and have been for months. The lack of an integrated system and any joined-up thinking is ridiculous in a modern city like London. Another delay is simply unacceptable, and it is time for the Department for Transport to hold the transport providers to account.”
To paraphrase Reginald Perrin: "Why don't you re-time all your announcements to arrive a year late? - then they will all be on time."
Exciting news from Scottish heritage railways
Transport Scotland is planning to introduce an integrated ticketing system based on smart card technology.
Quick off the mark, the Heritage Railway Association's Scottish Committee is lobbying hard to be part of the scheme from day one.
Alas, south of the border, the luddites still rule.
Despite a trial with Season Ticket holders on the Windsor-Staines route, SWT "is still in discussion with the Department for Transport to finalise timescales for (Oyster) rollout to other lines on the network".
A mere five and a half years after the cards were first introduced.
Now that the dust is settling following BoJo's shock announcement last week that TranSys' Oyster Card contract is to be terminated, perhaps it is time to ask a question or two.
When the contract with TranSys was originally signed Bob "the rebuilder" Kiley was the man in charge at TfL.
Despite expanding vast amounts of energy (and public money) on unsuccessful attempts to stop the PPP, little attention appears to have been paid to those areas that TfL did have direct control over - eg the TranSys contract.
So why was there no breakpoint written into the original contract?
Perhaps something that vodka Bob overlooked between visits to the offy?
The TranSys' summer BBQ was an unusually subdued affair last Wednesday (23rd July) .
In previous years the Smartcard PFI Contractor has been besieged by TfL staff begging to attend the annual shindig.
However, this year even those with much sought after tickets pleaded prior engagements of the 'underwater knitting' variety.
Regular visitors to Railway Eye may recollect that there have been a number of issues in recent weeks with Oyster card readers.
Surely TfL bosses weren't small minded enough to suggest that staff attending the do might find it "career limiting"?
PPPs are not exactly flavour of the month in London following the high profile collapse of Metronet .
Recent failures of TfL's Oyster Card ticketing system may see PFIs going the same way.
Twice in the last two weeks London Underground has had to open the 'gateline' owing to large numbers of valid Oyster cards being rejected by the system.
The expensive glitches have driven TfL to distraction, so in true "Partnership" style they have named and shamed the PFI contractors responsible for the system.
"We believe that (the latest) problem, resulted from incorrect data being sent out by our contractor, Transys," TfL said.
Voice of London and TfL mouth-piece Tony Travers was more forthright in the Guardian: "Transys just need to get a grip, sort it out and make sure that it doesn't happen again" he said.
However, TfL's continued insistence on publically shafting its contractors at every opportunity is likely to cost London dear. Private sector bids for Infracos BCV & SSL, the soon to be disaggregated former Metronet companies, will no doubt reflect the reputational risks of working for TfL.
***Oyster Card readers are on the blink again this morning meaning that Pay as You Go customers are travelling for free...***
Second failure in two weeks - see here
***There was a significant failure of TfL's Oyster ticketing system this morning with readers on both buses and Tube stations unable to read the cards.
As a consequence a significant number of Oyster cards have been corrupted...
UPDATE: Cards used in the last 24 hours are most likely to be affected, with the system unable to recognise them
UPDATE 2: Understood to be over 100,000 Oyster cards affected***
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