On May 29, 8:37*pm, "Peter Masson" wrote:

"Scott" wrote:

A mate and I got into a discussion about how the revenue from the
Oyster card is allocated between participating operators. *If I make a
journey on a bus at a cost of £1, I assume the £1 goes to the bus
operator (possibly with deduction of a service charge). *If I then
travel on the tube at a cost of £2.20, logically this money would go
to London Underground. *This brings the total spend to £3.20. *Next I
travel on DLR with a fare of £2.20. *I then make a second journey on
the tube. *This money can go to London Underground. *Total spend *is
now £5.40. *Now suppose I go on DLR with a fare of £2.20. *This makes
a total of £7.60. *At this point the price cap kicks in and the cost
is limited to £5.80. *I then get on another bus (£1).

Who gets paid what? * Does the first bus operator and London
Underground get paid in full, DLR in part and the second bus operator
not get paid at all? *Or do they all have their payment scaled back on
a *pro rata basis? *Or do none of them get paid the actual fare and
they all take a share of the total Travelcard revenue?

Or looking at it another ways If I only make one journey, on a bus,
does the bus company keep the £1 or do they get a pre-determined share
of the total Oyster money instead?

AIUI London operators don't take revenue risk. So all farebox income whether
cash fares, paper travelcards, or Oyster goes to TfL who pay operators
agreed sums for operating the service. I'm not sure how it works with
National Rail TOCs, who do take revenue risk.


You're absolutely correct in saying that under the current system
London bus operators do not take the revenue risk at all. London Buses
(the part of TfL that contracts out to bus operators), London
Underground, the DLR, London Overground and Croydon Tramlink are all
part of the "TfL family" - though I must admit I'm somewhat hazy on
how farebox revenue gets divided up internally within the TfL family,
i.e. between LU and DLR etc - and I don't think it's as
straightforward to say that it just gets divided up as such either.
(Also LOROL, the operator of the London Overground network, doesn't
take the revenue risk but gets paid an agreed amount according to
their performance; on the DLR I think the operator, Serco Docklands,
is subject to a similar regime, though I think they might get some of
the farebox take - plus there's the infrastructure concessionaires who
built and maintain the more recent extensions - e.g. CGL Rail for the
Lewisham extension - who I think get payments based on patronage of
those sections of the line).

Those National Rail TOCs who currently accept Oyster PAYG for at least
a part of their routes in London have reached an agreement with TfL -
in the case of routes that have interavailable ticketing (easiest
example being Stratford to Liverpool Street) I'm not sure they had any
choice in the matter, but for other routes where there's no
interavailable ticketing (e.g. West Drayton to Paddington) they have
done so voluntarily.

However without a doubt one of the major issues in the ongoing
negotiations to get all TOCs to accept Oyster PAYG across London is
how farebox revenue will be allocated - and the issue is not just how
much should go to the 'National Rail' TOCs as such but also to which
specific TOC it should go.