On Jan 21, 12:26*pm, Graeme Wall wrote:

On 21/01/2012 11:27, Roland Perry wrote:

It means that customers have to acquire a new smartcard (electronic
purse or ticket wallet) for every different application. I know that in
theory there are "multi-product" cards, but I don't know of any examples
in the wild, and whether for example trying to load a bus pass onto a
library ticket is going to fall foul of red tape at the bus depot or
library.

My bus-pass is also my library card and works fine in both. *Other
council "products" not relevant to me can also be loaded on it.

There were plans for combined Oyster + local library cards, to be
issued by London Borough councils, but this idea never took off for
whatever reason. (I can see all sorts of reasons why it could get
complicated in practice.) I'm not sure any London Borough councils
issue multi-purpose library + leisure centre cards either, as some
councils elsewhere do (perhaps partially because the operation of
leisure centres is often outsourced, though not always to private
companies - GLL and Fusion Lifestyle, who operate leisure/sports
facilities on behalf of many Boroughs, are charitable social
enterprises). Some London Boroughs of course are doing their best at
ridding themselves of the burden of providing a widespread public
library service, but that's another matter...