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

— Ensure the confidentiality of data for each party.
— Provide open st<strong>and</strong>ards to parties wishing to conform to the specification.
ITSO <strong>and</strong> Oyster Differences
Transport Committee: Evidence Ev 129
ITSO is designed to meet the needs of all UK transport operators <strong>and</strong> Public Transport Executives (PTEs)
without particular emphasis of any one aspect. Oyster is designed explicitly to meet the needs of TfL with
performance optimised around the associated business operations. DiVerent methods are employed by
ITSO <strong>and</strong> Oyster in how ticketing functions are delivered:
— ITSO joins multiple discrete schemes (Scotl<strong>and</strong>, Cheshire etc) via centralised security management
whereas Oyster operates as a single overall scheme.
— ITSO is decentralised with multiple card <strong>and</strong> product issuers <strong>and</strong> service operators with the
associated databases. Oyster operates a single, consolidated scheme database.
— ITSO Ltd m<strong>and</strong>ates the security scheme to be applied by ITSO scheme operators, including the
supply of the security service <strong>and</strong> secure modules (but does not take any financial liability).
TranSys bears the card security fraud risk for Oyster <strong>and</strong> uses TranSys designed solutions.
— ITSO supports multiple smart card technologies. Oyster cards are currently only issued using a
single technology, although the installed readers are capable of being upgraded to read more.
— ITSO supports a wide range of ticketing products, including singles, returns, reserved seats,
travelcards, loyalty products <strong>and</strong> a stored value purse. Oyster currently supports zonal travelcards
(including the Freedom Pass concession) <strong>and</strong> the Pay As You Go “ePurse” product.
— In ITSO responsibility for managing the operating software <strong>and</strong> scheme updates is devolved to the
schemes who may have to bear the costs for other schemes/PTEs to accommodate any changes
required. Oyster scheme updates are controlled through TranSys, who are responsible for
managing the system including the end devices.
— ITSO was created explicitly to be an open st<strong>and</strong>ard. Oyster is not designed as an open st<strong>and</strong>ard,
due to the fraud liabilities represented by the TranSys PFI model. Information has been restricted
to partners integrating Oyster in conjunction with TranSys.
— ITSO modifications are processed through a Technical Committee of respective experts (drawn
from the ITSO membership) prior to agreement by the wider membership, then DfT <strong>and</strong> finally
ITSO Management Board. Oyster updates are designed <strong>and</strong> managed by TranSys, in conjunction
with TfL.
— Settlement <strong>and</strong> Clearing is outside of the ITSO specification. Oyster supports Settlement <strong>and</strong>
Clearing as part of the scheme design.
As a consequence of these diVerences, there are a number of significant challenges presented by the
integration of ITSO on Prestige:
— ITSO card processing takes significantly longer than for Oyster cards, due to the additional data
stored (for full accountability) <strong>and</strong> security module use.
— The prevention of transaction loss requires end-to-end acknowledgement of data transfers.
— Larger ITSO transaction sizes (for full accountability) <strong>and</strong> additional operating data required to
support the ITSO functions require greater communication b<strong>and</strong>width <strong>and</strong> storage capacity
within the system.
— Additional data transfer will aVect operational processes (eg bus driver sign-on times).
— TranSys is unable to underwrite performance across all ITSO card types as it cannot control the
performance characteristics of cards that are ITSO certified. It is only reasonably possible for
TranSys to underwrite performance for an agreed subset of ITSO card types issued on an agreed
retailing basis.
— The ITSO Specification is continually evolving, creating a constantly moving baseline that needs
to be managed <strong>and</strong> assessed.
ITSO on PRESTIGE
The objective of the ITSO on PRESTIGE (IOP) Project is the “acceptance of ITSO-compliant smartcards
with a limited range of products by PRESTIGE Validation Devices to make them able to accept ITSO
cards”.
A Variation Notice to the existing <strong>Ticketing</strong> Services Contract (TSC) was issued by TfL to TranSys. It
specifies the need for a Design Study that would enable TTL <strong>and</strong> the Department for Transport (DfT) to
authorise the implementation of the IOP Project.