"Neil Williams" wrote in message
.net...
On Sun, 29 Jun 2014 09:26:48 +0200, "tim....."
wrote:
In what way?

The ability to have permanently online barriers, ticket machines etc

Define permanently on?

Networks do go done once in a while. What are all those commuters with
"online" season tickets going to do when it does?

within a few years will mean there will be no need for smart cards to
store data locally. NFC, barcodes etc with an online back end are far
more practical

I can't agree

storing someone's season ticket on a network server is a dumb thing to do.

Smart cards seem eminently more sensible, especially if we enhance the
offering to "part time" seasons and carnets.

(and media agnostic), while contactless credit/debit cards will win out for
local travel.

And what about the percentage of the population that doesn't have a
credit/debit card (such as children, TfL solve this problem by letting kids
travel free, are all ToCs expected to solve the problem this way?), or have
a card that isn't contactless enabled (such as foreigners, as I have said
many times German banks don't seem the slightest but inclined to offer this
feature to their customers. i suspect some, even more bankingly backwards
countries, will be similar).

And what about non local journeys?

tim