"Arthur Figgis" wrote in message
...
On 05/08/2016 00:51, bob wrote:
wrote:


And there was me thinking that ticketing was one bit that wasn't meant
to be
so fragmented after privatisation.

I thought the whole idea behind ITSO cards and technology was to avoid
precisely this issue. Where did it all go wrong?

A while ago I met some techies from a TOC and TfL, who told me there is a
big problem with the conflict between a political desire to let 'the
market' come up with something instead of being told what to do by the
government, and the practical need to have someone in charge who can
decide on a standard which everyone can then actually get on and use.

Everyone knows it is daft for every company to deploy its own system, but
co-ordination needs someone in charge to decide what to use. The techies
claimed that every time there was almost an agreement, Claire Perry would
run away and say it had to be left to the market rather than DfT.

The smart-metering initiative seems to have suffered from the same problem.

Governments and IT, not a good mix!

Plus, TOCs want to hold on to their passenger data, not share it with
rivals who might bid for the next franchise.

And there is the issue of goat-herding orphans, which acts as a brake on
technology. Even deciding they can just walk instead takes ages.

There is always going to have to be a system of purchasing tickets by walk
ups - even if the actual "ticket" is dispensed on a one time use smart
card..

A registered-card only system is going to disenfranchise too large a set of
people (even if they do try to do this on London buses)

tim