In message , at 09:46:36 on Fri, 27 Jun
2014, Kevin Ayton remarked:
The issue is that there are many different travel patterns, and there
isn't a one size fits all smart ticketing product. We will need
different products on smartcard / mobile phones / whatever to allow
anybody to do whatever journey they wish.

There's also a big difference for what's travel in essentially a zonal
system, compared to point-to-point. Even then the Oyster system can't
quite cope and has a complex system of en-route validators (which even
people here have problems understanding) to say things like "I didn't go
via Z1, honest guv".

Contactless would also only work for "single" fares (the complications
arising from things like period returns and which particular return half
you were 'using' a week later are simply enormous). And that means a
complete re-think of the National Rail fares system, and the concepts we
have today where singles are rarely half the price of a return [often
only 10p less].

Then there's the revenue lost because people could make a trip
comprising an Anytime fare in the morning and off-peak return, whereas
today they are often forced to 'waste' the Anytime return half ticket on
an off-peak home leg.
--
Roland Perry