On Fri, 3 Aug 2007 22:26:38 +0100, "tim....."
wrote:


"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 19:59:37 on Fri, 3 Aug
2007, tim..... remarked:
They say all the ATOC cards [or is it phones] are going to be compatible
with each other, but I wouldn't take bets on it.

Being technically compatible and using the same stored
value may not be the same thing :-(

That's a whole new can of worms, but are you suggesting one smartcard
could have the stored value from dozens of different TOCs upon it (and

No, just that one TOCs card would be useless at a different TOC
even though they were technically compatable, unless the issue of
funds sharing is resolved.

Eh? Surely you put cash on the card and it's irrelevant who added it or
who deducts it provided there are systems to reconcile the card and
distribute the payments due against travel undertaken?

I'm not terribly au fait with ITSO but I thought the whole point of it
was that any suitable technically compliant card could hold / recognise
the ITSO specification and associated "product profiles" for each TOC
and then deduct the most appropriate fare for the journey being
undertaken (given times, dates, origin / destination etc). Provided
readers in ticket machines, hand held devices and gates / validators
were all to the ITSO spec then they can read and write to any ITSO
compatible card.

I personally think the article that launched this thread is a load of
old fluff. Yes it's lovely to be oh so radical and different but the
TOCs have franchises commitments to get these schemes in and I can't see
anything other than a basic plain vanilla card / gate / validator / hand
held unit scheme being feasible within those timescales. You need
commonality and familiarity to get these schemes accepted by the public
and whether people like it or not Oyster is currently the most
"familiar" of any such product to most UK travellers. I would also
expect DfT to get a bit "concerned" if the TOCs were each heading off in
20 directions in their particular schemes to achieve smartcard
ticketing. Whatever South West Trains do by 2009 will be what sets the
benchmark for every other TOC.

You might get to mobile phone acceptance in due course but not as the
first step and certainly not with anything like bar code readers. FTR in
York put paid to that concept.

--
Paul C