In uk.railway Andy wrote:
I seem to recall seeing somewhere that one of the ideas is the virtual
carnet. Buy 10 tickets for a journey, taken at irregular intevals, but
only pay for 8. This is something that should be relatively simple to
setup with smartcard ticketing.

It would make sense to provide metro-area ticket across modes. So you'd buy
a DayRider which would be valid on local buses, and on trains (journeys like
Southampton Central to Redbridge). If you ended up at Poole on a train or
Andover on a bus you've gone too far and aren't travelling with a valid
ticket. Just like you can travelcard to Watford Junction but not Milton
Keynes.

I believe the Welsh Assembly is keen on an Oyster-alike for Cardiff and the
Valleys, which would seem a sensible target area.

It would also work for PAYG, as passengers should know that the
ticket isn't valid outside the metro area. But I don't know if you'd end up
with a separate PAYG balance for each place, or if someone would implement
a central 'bank of Oyster'.

(I know Barclaycard have PayWave, but that doesn't replace the Oyster
functionality because you really don't want PIN pads on ticket gates for the
N% of transactions that get referred).

Theo