By Andy McCue, 23 January 2004 14:50
NEWS A row has broken out between Transport for London (TfL) and Liberal Democrat London mayoral candidate Simon Hughes over claims that problems with the Tube's £1.2bn PFI Oyster card ticketing system are causing chaos for commuters and staff.
Hughes claims a 'significant' problem has emerged since the introduction of pre-pay Oyster cards and that a bug is preventing some passengers with weekly cards from entering and leaving ticket barriers. Another of the issues appears to be the time it is taking the Prestige computer system to load payments onto the cards.
One member of Hughes' office who has been affected told silicon.com he paid for his weekly Oyster card over the web but was warned it can take up to 72 hours for the payment to be activated.
Despite that warning, he received an email less than 24 hours later on Thursday morning informing him the card was now ready to use. But when he tried to go through the barrier at Finchley Road later that day he was stopped by a 'code 24' message indicating a 'negative pre-paid balance'.
He said the problem was not resolved until Friday morning and that several frontline London Underground staff told him there had been an increase in 'code 24' problems since the Prestige computer system behind the Oyster card scheme crashed last week and that it was causing staff and passengers "chaos".
He claims Tube staff told him that the problem is affecting pre-pay passengers who may not be aware of how long it takes for the credit to be activated as well as commuters using weekly cards, and that some cards have been recalled to try and identify the cause of the problem.
In a letter to London Mayor Ken Livingstone, Hughes said: "If there are bugs in the system which operates the pre-pay and weekly travelcard that cause misery for customers and staff then serious questions must be asked about the timetable and testing that was used to implement the card."
But TfL angrily denied the claims when questioned by silicon.com. A spokeswoman said: "There are some people having problems because they don't understand the system and they don't have sufficient funds on pre-pay."
She denied that the Prestige system had crashed last week and said no cards are being recalled.
The 17-year Prestige project is being delivered by a consortium of EDS, Cubic Corporation, Fujitsu and WS Atkins in what is one of the largest PFI schemes in the UK transport sector.
Comments
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1. anonymous
Usual story - system implemented without proper time given to system testing!
2. David Gaskill
I emigrated to Hong Kong last year, (although of course I still read silicon.com), so I am not familiar with London Transport's Oyster card ticketing system. The MTR, (Hong Kong's underground) has a system called Octopus performing a similar function.
This uses a credit-card sized card with simply needs to be placed on or held near the sensor at the ticket barrier to activate the turnstile when entering or leaving a station. I, like most people, never take the card out of my wallet. When I go through the exit turnstile at the end of my journey a display tells me how much my journey has cost and how much credit remains on my card.
I can use the card on buses and to make purchases at many retail outlets; at the same outlets, by simply handing over cash, I can add to the credit on my card. I can also recharge my card at all MTR stations by putting cash or my bank card into a machine but I don't use this facility much because it means taking the Octopus card out of my wallet...
Interestingly the system was developed by MTR, the company that runs the transport system.
I know that MTR have licensed the system to operators in other countries - and I suspect the licence fee is an awful lot less than £1.2 billion...
David Gaskill
3. James Lord
HAHA so funny how we can't get a simple card system to work correctly. I suggest that the system architects go an have a look at the Octopus system in Hong Kong. You can charge your card at any station or any 7-11 store and the credit to your card is instant... They can get it to work so why can't we??
4. anonymous
A great idea, very well marketed, but oh so poorly explained, supported or even implemented.
Documentation at stations, lets you believe that Pre Pay is an over the counter service with optional registration. Its not, registration required. There is no clear explanation as to how it works. And all the literature is misleading.
Has anyone succeeded in decoding the numerous notices popping up all over the Tube regarding Oyster users?
5. anonymous
I encountered a different Oyster 'bug' to that described in the article, which also resulting in a 'code 24' error: When I used a zone 1 weekly card on Oyster, the system was deducting a fee on some trips within zone 1 (which should have been covered by the weekly card). As a result, my balance was sent negative and I wasn't able to exit the station. The problem was tracked and resolved, but I wonder whether other Oyster users will be refunded for such overpayments?
6. anonymous
I would imagine the problems are down to the usual 'Government' IT problems - continually changing baselines caused by nobody with any authority being prepared to make decisions allied with political timeframes that bare little resemblance to the reality of the project. Having been involved in several such projects that ended up with the IT companies taking the blame for the politicians dithering I can't say I'm surprised that such basic errors were missed in testing. To politicians the go-live date is far more important than the system actually working!
7. anonymous
TFL trying to blame the users. Oh Please. We've all heard that one before. Shouldn't a consumer focused system like this be designed to be "fool" proof anyway ?
They really are the most arrogant organisation. Whether it congestion charging that no one wants,traffic light fiddles or patronising adverts about speed camera's. They really do show nothing but comtempt for the people they're supposed to be serving.
8. anonymous
Shame on the spokesperson for London Underground. If there was not a problem then how come Simon Hughes MP is aware of one? They should come clean and sort the mess out or refund the passengers and go back to employing ticket staff so people can pay in person!
9. Mark Stanley
There are often teething problems with any new technology. Why are we so quick to slag off British efforts so quickly? Are you telling me that Hong Kong's implementation was totally fault-free? Lets give London and TfL a bit of time to get Oyster established before attacking. It might just work...
10. David Gaskill
As Mark Stanley suggests I would be very surprised if there hadn't been teething problems with Hong Kong's Octopus system.
Surely the relevant point is that it is now up and running very successfully and from what I know of the Oyster system Octopus is more advanced.
£1.2 billion to reinvent a wheel with wooden spokes?
David Gaskill
11. anonymous
New York, Boston, Sydney ... now London!
Sorry to see that London is beginning to have the problems with their Cubic supplied transit ticketing/smartcard system.
You maybe able to understand the type of company you are dealing with when you read what they have been involved with elsewhere.
Look at the Village Voice here in New York and see what we think of them as a transit solution provider:
www.villagevoice.com/issues/0041/friedman.php
Just been thrown out of court in Boston where they took the local transit board to court.
Last year a judge in Australia said, "The point of these proceedings is, broadly speaking, to prevent the defendants (the government) from entering into a contract with ITSL (the winner of a tender) for the supply of the Sydney smartcard for transit and to require them to reconsider both tenders "according to law". It is difficult indeed to see how the Court would be justified in directing the defendants (the government) to reconsider the plaintiffs' (Cubic) tender when its lack of good faith and positive dishonesty have been so devastatingly exposed. To grant it relief would be to provide the very goal that it determined on in breach of its duty of good faith towards the defendants (the government). If it were necessary for me to do so, I would have no hesitation in giving judgment to the defendants upon this ground alone."
You can see the full judgment, which is very interesting, at http://caselaw.lawlink.nsw.gov.au
Simply search for "Cubic" under the "NSW Supreme Court"
It is also well to remember that a senior Cubic manager/director was jailed here in the US in the 90's basically for corruption in a defense tendering matter.
Finally, it looks like Cubic is setting to hit the UK courts this year. At their annual general meeting they indicated that one million pounds needed to be put aside for anticipated legal action over their smartcard solution in London.
This is not all hearsay, this is all fact. Why Tfl didn't know whom they were dealing with is simply unacceptable. Their supplier's antecedents are openly available and should have raised major warning signs before giving them millions and millions of pounds for the next 17 years.