Dubba wrote:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6316245.stm
Train operators have agreed to introduce Oyster cards in London after
accepting a £20m grant from the mayor.
Ten firms operating surface rail services into London will share the
subsidy to install pay-as-you-go Oyster reading equipment.
The electronic cards are used across the city on the Tube, buses,
trams and Docklands Light Railway network.
New equipment will have to be fitted in about 260 London stations
which do not have fully automatic gates.
George Muir, of the Association of Train Operating Companies, said
details of the proposal will need to be ironed out.
"All London train operators will be responding positively to Transport
for London's proposal for Oyster pay-as-you-go," he said.
Mr Muir said because further discussion is needed to reach agreement
on the proper level of funding for different parts of the network.
Train operators are also calling for progress in dual-reading gates at
London's stations so they accept ITSO electronic cards.
The ITSO card, similar to the Oyster card, will be the standard smart
card for railway passengers outside London.
---------
"The ITSO card will be the standard smart card for railway passengers
outside London" - when was that decided then? Must've past me by!
"The ITSO Organisation was founded in 1998 as a result of discussions
between various UK Passenger Transport Authorities concerning the lack
of suitable standards for inter-operable smartcard ticketing. These
discussions grew to include other authorities, transport operators and
Government."
http://www.itso.org.uk/default.asp?ContentID=45
"Scotland, Cheshire, Merseytravel, Wales (2), Nowcard, Yorcard, Greater
Manchester PTE, Southampton City and Nottinghamshire CC" have ITSO schemes.
http://www.itso.org.uk/default.asp?ContentID=57
Arguments about open vs proprietary technology (or anything beyond the
M25!) aren't of much interest to the media, so ITSO hasn't got much
coverage. Funnily enough, TOCs haven't simply set out to annoy the Mayor
- there is more to it than that.
--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK