clockend wrote:
I wrote to First (new WAGN/Thameslink franchise holder) about Oyster
usage and was suprised at the comprehensive reply....
snip
We are well
aware of the demand for smartcard travel products, particularly Oyster,
in London. The two franchises we are replacing have introduced some
limited facilities to sell oystercards at a few stations, and
Thameslink accepts Oyster Pre-pay on its route between certain
stations.

Hopefully they're also aware that WAGN accepts Oyster Pre-pay between
Finsbury Park and KX/Moorgate...

We will continue to
support these initials steps in retailing Oyster but we are planning to
wait until two major issues are clearer before committing to a
significant expansion of Oyster:

Firstly, there needs to be agreement between DfT (who fund TOC
franchises) and TfL on the type of smartcard technology to be used. DfT
mandates use of the ITSO protocol which is non-proprietorial and so
open to be used by many suppliers, whilst TfL is pushing ahead with
Oyster which is a proprietorial technology giving a monopoly position
to its supplier.

Fair enough from First's perspective (although it was entirely within
the DfT's power to go down the sane route of designating Oyster as the
UK travel smartcard standard, and the stuff about monopoly positions
is... err... truth-economical)

Currently the two systems are not compatible and we
need DfT and TfL to conclude their negotiations on how far DfT is
prepared to allow Oyster to expand outside London. We also need
agreement between the two parties on how TOCs can offer Oyster products
in London and offer ITSO products outside London on the same platform,
which is the compromise they appear to be working to.

This is sensible.

We need to know
the outcome of this before making a potentially abortive investment
which could be overtaken by events; and secondly, there isn't an
accredited modern ticketing solution for selling rail products on
Oystercards at present. The limited way it is done at present utilises
APTIS machines which are being withdrawn from use across the rail
industry on account of their age and system limitations. They all will
be withdrawn by the end of 2006, but there isn't an agreed replacement
for retailing rail on Oyster at present.

No. Bad First. Keep at least one APTIS machine at every London station
for Oyster until the new Avantix module is ready! Yes, they're old and
they don't have a full fares list, but they still work and it's a
massive usability downgrade to remove them...

There are other issues, particularly around revenue protection on a
largely "open" rail network as opposed to the "closed" (ie gated)
underground network, which cause significant concerns to TOCs which
also have to be resolved before a large scale expansion of smartcard
retailing can happen on National Rail.

Don't see why: just treat non-touch-in-ers the same way you'd treat
anyone else without a ticket[*]. It works for LUL at Finsbury Park,
after all. Surely this is a smokescreen for the real issue about
fearing revenue loss from zonal fares?

Good to see them writing such a comprehensive and comprehensible
response, though.
[*] I mean 'PF them and prosecute repeat offenders', not 'ignore them
totally and never check tickets ever'. We're not dealing with
Silverlink here...

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org