Ticketing and Concessionary Travel on Public Transport - United ...

Transport Committee: Evidence Ev 69
25. But, even if the technology stays as it is now, it will still need over £100 million of investment from
the public sector 10 , plus on top of that will be perhaps £50 million to re-issue all 10 million concession passes,
although some of that pass issuing funding will already be budgeted for over the five year period as part of
the normal cycles of replacement <strong>and</strong> accretion of new entrants.
26. Scotl<strong>and</strong> may soon get its second wind, after a stuttering start to its ITSO-compliant smart media
bus-based ticketing scheme. Wales has issued ITTs for an all-Wales scheme similar to that in Scotl<strong>and</strong>.
4. Does the ITSO system cater for the needs of all passengers <strong>and</strong> travel providers?
27. No, but it is capable of extension (needs capital investment for development, <strong>and</strong> a security
management organisation that also needs public funding).
28. Some extensions (to diVerent media) have already been mentioned above, but the particular missing
link is that there is no provision in the ITSO Method for on-line purchase of tickets for direct download into
the ticket media. This extension is particularly important for heavy rail. It requires a significant re-think of
security methods, <strong>and</strong>, if a competitive market in systems <strong>and</strong> equipment is to be maintained, a rigorous
application of the international systems level st<strong>and</strong>ard ISO EN 24014-1 11 , which the UK has been very active
in developing out of the basic principles of the ITSO Method. Currently ATOC/RSP, after a request from
DfT Rail, has proposed a centralised architecture rather than the distributed one described in the st<strong>and</strong>ard
<strong>and</strong> implemented in the ITSO Method—that proposal must be rejected.
29. There is also the problem that reading the ticket or tickets in the smart media cannot at present be
carried out with a low cost reader, thus requiring tickets for a complex multi-leg multi-modal journey to be
sold with a printed itinerary.
30. At the management level, the ITSO Licensees (scheme owners/operators) have recently agreed to
form a co-operative of the schemes. 12 However, there is no provision for overall security management across
the network of schemes 13 , <strong>and</strong> some key supporting ITSO specification material has not been delivered.
31. DfT is currently looking at BIBO technology (Be-In Be-Out), ie automatic detection of the
passenger’s token as the passenger enters a vehicle, automatic charging, <strong>and</strong> automatic detection of exit.
Revenue protection is exceedingly diYcult with this method.
5. What can be learned from the experiences of areas such as London <strong>and</strong> Scotl<strong>and</strong> where smartcard technology
is already in place?
32. London’s scheme is not scalable (or interoperable with other schemes using the same Oyster
technology) unless it is updated by adding ITSO technology. Considerable funding has already been
provided for this upgrade, but may not be enough. London’s scheme is expensive to run <strong>and</strong> more expensive
to change; it does not translate well to more rococo areas (eg rural areas).
33. Scotl<strong>and</strong> got the contractual organisation massively wrong, <strong>and</strong> their attempt to marry up transport
ticketing with use of smart cards for citizen services was bungled. A recent presentation to the DfTsupported
Transport Card Forum, by Anne Gibson of Transport Scotl<strong>and</strong>, illustrates the diYculties that
they have been <strong>and</strong> are having. An oYcer from the NoWcard scheme (Cumbria, Lancashire, Blackpool <strong>and</strong>
Blackburn) indicated at the time that they have made the same mistakes.
34. Planning for system integration in Scotl<strong>and</strong> was neglected, with delays to rollout of the acceptance
network now apparent <strong>and</strong> serious concerns by the commercial software contractor. The same delays can
be seen in the NoWcard project (Lancs <strong>and</strong> Cumbria—the same consultants as were used in Scotl<strong>and</strong> were
used for NoWcard). DfT has recently published a report on the early stages of ITSO <strong>and</strong> Oyster
integration 14 , again showing project planning failures, causing significant delays—the same consultants
were involved (<strong>and</strong> many of us knew about the contractual diYculties that would be encountered). By
contrast, Merseytravel’s Stage 1, to issue ITSO-compliant concession passes <strong>and</strong> outsource much of the
operation of the scheme, had project planning <strong>and</strong> system integration managed in-house by an expert
Information Systems team, <strong>and</strong> has quietly <strong>and</strong> successfully started issuing smart media passes. 15
35. Revenue protection is often very diYcult in an electronic ticketing system, but most publicly owned
public transport schemes in dense urban areas (ie in other countries, <strong>and</strong> perhaps also TfL) don’t concern
themselves too much about people who travel without paying: public transport is a public service.
10 A lower cost transitional method where only passes have to be accepted has been partly developed by the author of this
submission in work done for Merseytravel, but it has yet to be deployed; DfT have been made aware of this method but have
not responded.
11 Integrated Fare Management Architecture, currently awaiting publication after a successful final ballot.
12 That follows a proposal made over three years ago by Dr David Everett <strong>and</strong> the author of this submission, as part of a joint
piece of work for DfT <strong>and</strong> an agency acting for ODPM; that proposal was signed oV by DfT “for discussion” <strong>and</strong> sent to the
embryo Association of ITSO Licensed (<strong>and</strong> would-be licensed) Operators.
13 Here the new (draft) Information Assurance framework from Cabinet OYce CSIA applies.
14 http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/scienceresearch/otherresearch/itsooysterinteroperability
15 The author of this submission was technical adviser on the ITSO level aspects of this project; Paul Oakley, Information
Systems Manager at Merseytravel, should be able to provide information about the management methods used.