London Banter - View Single Post - Cost of the abandoned Rapid Project, obtained under the Freedom ofInformation Act

Peter Campbell Smith[_5_] · June 8th 11, 09:36 AM posted to uk.transport.london

Offramp wrote in news:3ebb8c47-d448-4ed1-967a-
:

You may have seen Bus Inspectors using PDAs to check addresses and
issue penalty fares. They use what looks like an XDA II. The Rapid
project was to create a very similar system for use by Tube RIs*. They
did not have to work underground, as such, they would send PFN
information telephonically once above ground. Electoral roll info was
to be stored on the device itself. The project was in development for
about two years but the company which had been asked to develop the
system produced nothing physical and the project was abandoned.

As I recall, the original spec did ask for the device to transmit the PF
information underground. Apparently experience with parking enforcement is
that miscreants grab and make off with the PDA, so the principle is that it
saves the data elsewhere within a few seconds.

At the time I read it I could only envisage saving the data initially on
some device in the train, and then downloading it at a station or depot.
It seemed a lot of cost and a lot that could go wrong for perhaps not very
much return.

Peter

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|| Peter CS | Epsom | UK ||