2012 Olympics travel plans in doubt as Oyster card contract is scrapped

by Davey Winder

Tuesday, 12 August 2008

Page 1 of 2 ! If the Oyster card, a RFID-based fare collection and ticketing system for London buses, tube trains and the Docklands Light Railway, has been such a huge success with 6 million cards in active use and 38 million journeys made every week, then why is Transport for London terminating its £100 million a year Oyster contract? Transport for London has announced that it is to terminated its £100 million per year contract with Transys which manages the Oyster card. Transys says that TfL has "invoked the break clause" which lets it escape the contract after 10 years. The contract, which has been in existence since 1998, was due to run for another 7 years. However, Transport for London has opted to invoke its escape clause in order, according to Director of Fares and Ticketing, Shashi Verma, that the savings "will be reinvested to deliver further improvements in London's transport system." Apparently, the new Mayor of London, the ebullient Boris Johnson, and Transport for London both agree that a new contract will deliver better services for less money. TfL was at great pains to point out how successful Oyster has been, trumpeting ease of use, Internet top-ups, multiple travelcards on a single Oyster and how 6 million are in active use and responsible for some 38 million public transport journeys every single week. You might imagine, then, that it would be happy to let Transys finish the 17 year contract if it has been so successful. After all, Transys (a consortium with Cubic, EDS and Fujitsu Services amongst its shareholders) has been responsible for its development, installation and management across London. Of course, TfL and Transys did not mention the small matter of how Dutch researchers managed to crack the security on an Oyster card in June. By so doing enabling totally free travel on the London Underground system. If that were not bad enough, the Dutch duo also showed how the cracked card could be used to kick off a Denial of Service attack against the ticket barriers, effectively closing Tube stations across the capital. By demonstrating the exploit, only one barrier was closed but it was kept permanently shut which rather proved the point. At the time, TfL said it would not be forced in making any decisions about the future of the Oyster card based on such exploits. So what now for the Oyster brand, and can the technology be patched up and in place in time for the 2012 London Olympics? Find out on page 2... CONTINUES << First page <   1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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