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

Smartcards: lessons learned
Lessons can be learned from the experience of London, Scotl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> elsewhere with
smartcard technology. Some of these are:
• Much of the challenge associated with the introduction of smartcards lies not so much
in the technology itself as in the business processes <strong>and</strong> with the agreements necessary
to allocate costs, payments <strong>and</strong> liabilities.
• Smartcards are not a simple solution. The London Oyster has proved complex <strong>and</strong>
expensive but successful; the ambitious Scottish Entitlement Card has proven to be a
more difficult project <strong>and</strong> is still being rolled out.
• It is important to keep in step with commercial operators <strong>and</strong> the technology industry.
Some witnesses have suggested that Holl<strong>and</strong> offers a good model for industrygovernment
partnership.
• Passengers’ expectations rise <strong>and</strong> dissatisfaction can result from those parts of the
system aspects that are not integrated, such as the parts of the London rail network that
do not accept Oyster, despite the increase in some fares as a result of zoning.
• A single overall customer or “systems integrator” is crucial to drive progress as in
London <strong>and</strong> Scotl<strong>and</strong>.
38. The limited take-up by the transport industry of smartcard technologies is the result of
two major factors:
a) The structure of the transport industry, particularly the bus sector, is competitive <strong>and</strong>
fragmented. 39 This makes long-term planning more difficult <strong>and</strong> investment more
risky. Countries that have implemented smartcards on a large scale, such as The
Netherl<strong>and</strong>s, tend to be those where the national or regional authorities have more
direct control over transport operations. 40
b) The business case for the industry to adopt smartcard technologies on a large scale has,
until recently, been weak. 41 The operators argue that integrated ticketing is not a high
customer priority, <strong>and</strong> the returns do not justify the substantial investment, particularly
in a declining market. The problem is greater for the bus industry.
39. However, the signs are that the industry is now more receptive as technical issues are
being resolved <strong>and</strong> potential benefits recognised, although the structural difficulties
remain. 42 The necessary infrastructure <strong>and</strong> economies of scale through shared back-office
39 Ev 85
40 Ev 66
41 Ev 68
42 Qq 172–174
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