In message , at 22:33:54 on
Sat, 9 Aug 2014, Paul Corfield remarked:
[1] ATOC in October 2010:
"ATOC is co-ordinating train company input into this exercise and
it is hoped that by the end of 2012, all TfL and National Rail
Oyster readers will be able to accept ITSO based Travelcards along
with Oyster and magnetic stripe tickets."
Does this qualify as vapourware?? Paging Mr Corfield!
Not sure why I am being paged. You're in charge of vapourware.
I was wondering if you agreed this time (a project with a waaaay too
optimistic deadline announced).
You keep quoting quotes by others.
They are all people deeply involved in the project, saying when it'll be
ready.
So? I've known for about 18 months that the project was running late.
I'm not exactly bothered that ATOC, since replaced by the Rail
Delivery Group, can't be bothered to update a web page. There are
thousands of web pages with out of date project details on them.
That page (in common with the others I quote on similar matters) aren't
project plans being updated, they are one-off press releases saying
something along the lines of "Aren't we clever, lots of new ticketing
technology just around the corner".
What I'm pointing out is that very often (and especially it seems for
new ticketing) these estimates are wildly optimistic and cannot be
relied upon at all. Other than as a warning that perhaps many of the
other things organisations claim to be in the pipeline are also likely
to be over-optimistic.
I see, for example, that the new Cambridge Science Park station is
already six months late (work started, on schedule, constructing the
access road last month, and the station was supposed to be finished in
time for the timetable change in December 2015. However it's already
slipped to the next timetable change in May 2016.)
ps I'm not sure what's so complicated about negotiations to allow TOCs
who are already selling paper Travelcards load onto an ITSO card they
already issue[1]. Isn't it TfL who have the "agree" to accept them (and
if money is involved in loading them, which way is it flowing?)
[1] SWT, Southern and EMT at the moment, I suppose.
Sales, acceptance and accounting for Travelcards are covered in the
Travelcard agreement which all TOCs are party to. I suspect trying to
modify the Travelcard Agreement just to reflect ITSO based products is
a step too far. Asking all TOCs to be involved and to sign off when
some have no ITSO products on their network and may not do so for
years is just asking for years of delay.
This is something which should be done by ATOC on behalf of all the
TOCs.
Given each TOC will have their own HOPS and it will need to talk to
Tfl's systems and there will need to be data exchange, sharing,
revenue settlement etc I can see why there may be complications.
Again, I don't know what's so different about revenue settlement at the
point of use of a Travelcard (rather than when it's sold). When it's
being used all that needs to be done is validate that it's "in Zone".
Or are you saying that unbeknown to the passengers they are counting how
much the Travelcard is actually (rather than potentially) used on which
routes, and divvying up the revenue retrospectively?
Someone sent me this link
http://issuu.com/abelliogroup/docs/o...july___for_int
That's got one of the worst user-interfaces I've ever seen (not your
fault, obviously).
- take a look at page 5 to get a tiny glimpse of what is being planned
by Abellio Greater Anglia for SEFT / ITSO.
I expect I'm more likely to be using a TSGN ITSO card (for my travel to
London); it'll be interesting to see if those interoperate well with
ITSO gates at places like Cambridge which are operated by GA.
I'm not holding my breath to be able to add a GA (or any other
'foreign') ITSO ticket onto my TSGN card[1], or onto a local Stagecoach
bus ITSO card.
[1] Whatever branding it gets, currently it's Southern "the Key" of
course. Have they decided to brand themselves GTR long term, or is that
just a working title?
--
Roland Perry