On Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:27:07 +0100, Tom Barry
wrote:

Boltar wrote:
Oh dear , some toys being chucked out of prams over at TfL HQ. Seems
poor old Peter Hendy was in a rage about the recent failures (read:
loss of revenue). Oh dear Peter , well now you know what its like for
Oyster to screw you out of your money through no fault of your own.
Suck it up mate.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7549603.stm

B2003

Have you got anything intelligent to say about it, or are you just
airing your well-known anti-Oyster views?

Personally, if Hendy is incandescent about the Oyster failures, good.
He's every right to be, indeed if he wasn't he'd not be doing his job
properly.

As for the early end of the contract (in two years, actually) various
questions arise, not least of which is that Transys now have no
particular incentive to improve their performance beyond whatever
penalty payments are in the contract, a common drawback of outsourcing
key functions. The second question is how they structure the
replacement. The third is how this affects next years major roll out of
PAYG on National Rail, which will presumably require Transys and TfL to
co-operate in order to do the job properly, just at the point when EDS
and Cubic will be looking to do things like move the best staff to more
profitable areas.

And not forgetting the resources needed to undertake the retendering
process [1]. I also don't see Cubic walking away from London given the
scale of equipment they have in place. They will also be spending time
and money to try to win the replacement contract (or at least a
significant role in any consortia that might put itself forward to bid).

[1] it was a very significant task the first time round and the
situation now is more complex in terms of stakeholders / participants
and also the divergent options around the way the technology will
develop. London Buses' view of on bus systems would suggest they'd want
to walk away from ticket machines being supplied by a future "Prestige"
consortia.

--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!