TranSys has started the first smart card rollouts as part of a 1.2bn pound world-class ticketing system designed to make travel in the capital faster, easier and more convenient for London's commuters
Cubic, as a principal shareholder in TranSys provided existing equipment upgrades, as well as new state-of-the-art automatic passenger gates, ticket vending machines, bus ticketing equipment, smart card reader technology, and is performing maintenance on the system.
The infrastructure is substantially complete and, after months of field testing, the card, called Oyster, has been given to almost 80,000 Tube and bus staff in the first stage of a managed roll out which will continue through 2003.
"This marks the start of a ticketing revolution in London. The card is a major step forward for London and the millions of people who use the capital's transport network every day. From next year the travelling public can look forward to less queuing to buy tickets and faster movement through ticket gates and onto buses. This new technology will play an important part in modernizing London's transport," said Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone.
The system has been financed, designed, manufactured and installed by TranSys for Transport for London and London Underground. TranSys is led by two principal shareholders, EDS (Electronic Data Systems) and Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS), and was awarded an innovative contract in 1998. After four years in the delivery stage, the concession is now
transitioning into the operations phase, which extends to 2015. Cubic, as the supplier of all systems assets to TranSys, has equipped 6,000 buses and 255 Tube stations to take the new Oyster cards, and installed a comprehensive data acquisition and control system to support ongoing operations, revenue management and reporting. The overall solution is integrated and built upon a foundation of Cubic technology, which has been operational in the London Underground since the mid 1980s.
The credit card-sized Oyster cards contain a microchip, which is embedded within the card. The card simply needs to be touched onto the card readers on buses or at gates. For some, the Oyster card will carry their period ticket while others will use the card for the new PrePay ("pay-as-you-go") facility. However, magnetic stripe ticketing options will continue to be made available for a large proportion of customers for the foreseeable future.
The Oyster card will be more secure and it will speed up journeys by cutting down on the number of people paying a bus driver and reducing the number of trips to the ticket office. The cards will also make it even easier to switch between different modes of transport -- ultimately they will work right across the network including trams and Docklands Light Railway, as well as buses and the Tube.
Following this first phase of the rollout, different ticket types will be introduced onto the Oyster card progressively, starting initially with monthly and annual season tickets.
