London railways to use Oyster prepay

gallery

London train operators agreed to roll out Oyster cards, just meeting a deadline for funding offered by Mayor Ken Livingston.

Last May, Livingston and Transport for London (TfL) offered £20 million to train operators to help finance the installation of card readers and other equipment to run the pay-as-you-go (PAYG) swipe card system across all forms of transport - buses, tubes, trams and now trains - operating through travel zones one to six.

Earlier this month, both Chiltern Railways and c2c signed up for the deal. Now, the other eight London train operators are also coming on board.

George Muir, director general of the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) said in a statement: "All London train operators will be responding positively to Transport for London's proposal for Oyster pay-as-you-go and want to move forward with discussions aimed at implementing it on the railway in London."

Despite the agreement, TfL said that some of the train operating companies, including Southern and Southeastern, still have reservations about the Oyster pay-as-you-go system.

Chris Burchell, Southern's managing director, said: "There are still a number of outstanding issues that need to be discussed with TfL, but we do not believe these will prevent us making PAYG a reality on our network."

Livingston agreed that there is still work to be done working out the details. "This is a step in the right direction, however there is some way to go before an agreement is reached," said Livingston. "Transport for London will work with the companies over the next two months to try to resolve outstanding issues."

According to the ATOC, accepting pay-as-you-go tickets is more complex than season tickets, which London railways already accept on Oyster cards. The pay-as-you-go system requires more equipment and processing power to instantly calculate the fare and deduct it from the card's balance.

The pay-as-you-go system also raises concerns with ticketless travel, said the ATOC.

"Ideally, PAYG ticketing requires fully gated stations but currently, while 70 of the largest stations in London have automatic ticket gates, 260 do not," the ATOC said in a statement. "At stations which don't have automatic ticket gates, stand-alone validators can be used, though these are not as satisfactory for passengers or train operators."

Some of the operators have announced a schedule for the rollout. Silverlink Metro, Chiltern and c2c will rollout the Oyster card pay-as-you-go system later this year, One Railway will extend their access in the spring 2008, and First Great Western and First Capital Connect will follow in 2009.

Email to a friend

Print this page