Could credit cards replace regional travel cards?
London is a bustling city full of life and vigour. It is also quite famously a place where getting from A to B is purportedly easy, if a little daunting for a visitor.
Could credit cards replace regional travel cards?
The benefit? Less to carry in your handbag of back pocket.”
There are buses, tube trains, over ground trains and those classic black cabs.
For those not in the know, bright blue Oyster cards offer Londoners a cash free solution to travel, mainly used on buses and the London underground, though some overland train travel is also possible. Oyster cards can be topped up at machines and kiosks all over London and used to pay bus and tube fares at a discounted rate.
All of this is already pretty high tech but for most Londoners it is now just an integrated part of life which they don’t think about too much.
That could all change pretty soon because new technology means that mobile phone companies and credit card companies are launching products with Oyster card facilities already built in.
The benefit? Less to carry in your handbag of back pocket.
Viva la Oyster revolution
The London Assembly held a meeting recently where the subject of Oyster cards in London was a hot topic. The Head of Ticketing, at Transport For London (TFL) Will Judge, explained how he saw the future for the handy travel card.
He said that TFL found Oyster cards costly and that the organisation was looking into workable solutions to make them less so.
Judge described switching to what the TFL calls ‘a more conventional contract’ which would allow other businesses such as credit card companies, mobile phone manufacturers and other smart card companies to create products which integrated the Oyster card technology.
They would then sell them to consumers, citing the Oyster card capabilities as a benefit.
He revealed that the current system which uses an RFID-equipped card could soon end and a group which would include Fujitsu, WS Atkins and Cubic would take the place of Transys to create travel solutions which were more versatile and fit consumer demand.
No more Oyster
It has also been hinted at in the press that the "Oyster" name could be scrapped all together and there could be huge rebranding which takes into account the more versatile way the travel system would work.
The Transport for London representatives also discussed the reliability of the system which has been criticised in the press a lot recently, with two big outages in July allowing many travellers to walk through ticket barriers without paying.
The hope is that new systems would mean less of a loss for the TFL.
Finally
While these changes really only affect Londoners and visitors to London, more and more other cities are considering the benefits of a similar travel card system.
The coin-free nature of bus travel in the city has streamlined the process for bus drivers and made more buses run on time and with increased efficiency.
So you never know, perhaps cashless travel will soon be hitting a city near you, what’s more, you might even use your credit card or mobile phone to pay for it!
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