By Jo Best, 17 March 2005 17:25
NEWS The Oyster card looks set to reach far beyond the barriers of London's Underground network, as cash becomes a dirty word in London's public sector.
Speaking today at the Consult Hyperion Digital Money Forum in London, Charles Monheim, director of transport for London's Oyster card, said the company is looking to rid London's public transport of cash payments, from buses to car parking.
"We are waving cash goodbye... We're removing cash from buses entirely by 2006," he said. "Transport is the killer application [for e-money]."
In order to deter customers from using coins rather than card, cash customers will be forced to pay a premium over card-carriers. Such a system is already used on the Tube, where non-Oyster ticket holders pay 20 per cent extra or above, depending on the time of day.
The conversion of street-level parking from cash to Oyster card payments will take longer, Monheim said, but will happen. "With on-street parking, both consumers and merchants are getting fed up with cash... The City of London is taking the lead in taking cash from machines."
However, Monheim admitted the push to more Oyster usage is not about customer convenience, it's about cost-cutting.
"The challenge for us on the tube is to move customers from relatively high-cost channels to relatively low-cost channels... we're saving 15 to 20 per cent by virtue of converting to smart card ticketing."
Monheim said Oyster card is now looking to expand into entirely new areas.
"We are looking for an e-money partner... we're also looking for technology partners to help us navigate the right place for a contactless payment card in the marketplace - an organisation with a certain amount of vision and foresight to roll with punches," he said.
The Oyster card has already broken out of its initial transport niche and can be used in conjunction with a number of local councils' services.
There are a few boroughs in London that provide access to services along with the Oyster service including some which offer access to library or leisure centre facilities, using the card as an authentication mechanism. Monheim said: "For those that don't want to be smart, they can use the Oyster card branded as their council card."
The card is also being used to access parking lots. "We're doing trials with parking in our own parking lots, thereby avoiding regulation," he joked.
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. Ian Sargent
The Oyster network crashed on 10 March. If that happens again under this proposal not only do you get free access to to the Underground, but you can't use a parking meter, you can't pay for any council services and you can't borrow any books from the library.
2. anonymous
I rarely have to travel in London itself, technically i live in a London borough I rarely use public transport here as it's rubbish.
(I say technically as we're are miles away from London but still get screwed on the Council Tax etc.)
So on the odd occasion where i need to i will be punished and charged more.
That will make me want to give up my car.
Great plan.
3. David Gaskill
The Oyster system is far behind the Octopus system here in Hong Kong.
The Octopus card can be used on virtually all forms of transport in Hong Kong, MTR (underground), buses and trains, etc. In addition many retailers have terminals and accept payment by Octopus. I rarely use cash for shopping.
The card is also used for parking, many vending machines, leisure facilities and for access control to residential and commercial buildings.
Additional funds can be added to the card at any retail terminal and at machines accepting cash at all stations. Alternatively it is possible to instruct your bank to automatically top up the card.
For reasons I'm not quite sure about there are actually more Octopus cards in use than there are Hong Kong residents!
4. Peter
To the anonymous IT Manager in Kent: Why can't you have an Oyster card for the odd trip into the city and simply have a small value on it? I have an Oyster card which I regularly put season tickets on, but it also has a small pre-pay value on it so I can easily travel around London when I am not on a season ticket. It is simple and efficient.
5. anonymous
Presumably, occasional users (such as overseas visitors and residents of Kent) will be catered for by limited-use smart tickets. There are now low-cost RFID chips suitable for this purpose.
6. Richard the first
Whatever Happened to the Weekend Travelcard?
They did away with it and replaced it with a 3-day Peak only travelcard... at *thrice* the price.
The justification? Customer choice.
Beware anything that replaces a cheap, transparent, easy to use system with an infrastructure-heavy opaque one.
7. anonymous
Use our technology or else!
The money, taxpayers that is, is always spent on new fangled ticketing technology used to fleece us and rarely on actually improving the trains themselves.
The UK it seems has been sold-off to greedy self serving technology companies.