London Banter - View Single Post

Roland Perry · August 30th 17, 03:02 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In message , at 13:31:24 on Wed, 30 Aug
2017, d remarked:

From the back office database. Don't they already access that when
checking
contactless these days? Recent Oyster & Contactless developments rely on a
degree of connectivity that was but a dream less than a decade ago.

Not in real time as far as I can tell, no. Contactless ticket checks
show on the journey history but take some hours to appear, it seems to
be updated after the event. Gate entry/exits take a few seconds to appear.

I wonder what if anything stops people using duff contactless cards, eg
ones for a closed account or one that was thought lost , cancelled , then
foundi
again? Presumably the only check the gate can do is whether the card
is from a
valid bank and account type.

The first time it's used, probably nothing to stop it. Once the charge
"bounces", overnight, it'll probably be added to a local-to-TfL
block-list.

I suppose for TfL the most they can lose is the daily capped fare, but if
contactless starts to be accepted on national rail for longer journeys someone
could in theory fleece a TOC of a few hundred quid.

Which is why every informed commentary on the likelihood of a National
Rail contactless post-pay scheme says it's a pipe dream.
--
Roland Perry