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

Transport Committee: Evidence Ev 133
2. The use of smart-card technologies for ticketing on public transport is closely linked to the creation of
integrated ticketing strategies, <strong>and</strong> the Government supports ITSO. Is progress happening quickly enough, <strong>and</strong>
are the best possible systems being put in place?
ITSO. We do not believe that progress has been rapid enough to keep pace with technological change.
Whilst good work has been done by ITSO in setting st<strong>and</strong>ards, the organization is small <strong>and</strong> has been slow
to define st<strong>and</strong>ards. Whilst ITSO has addressed the question of technical st<strong>and</strong>ards, it has not proved to be
an eVective forum for managing the delivery of integrated ticketing, dealing with its commercial implications
or for sustaining the systems against the background of rapidly changing technology.
ATOC (Rail Settlement Plan) has taken the lead in delivering ITSO obligations on the National Rail
network <strong>and</strong> is ready to provide central “back oYce” functions to reduce the costs of its roll-out. As a result
of this, ATOC would be well placed to be the customer for a properly resourced national integrated ticketing
system. Once ITSO compliance has been established, we would expect the spread of smartcard ticketing to
be very rapid, primarily in metropolitan areas.
Oyster. Train operators already accept travelcards on Oyster on National Rail services. 70 of the 330
stations within Greater London already have gates capable of reading Oyster. Additional ticket issuing
machines have been procured to support the sale of Oyster. 15% of National Rail journeys within London
are already on Oyster.
Train operators are committed to making Oyster Pay as you Go tickets available to their customers as
well, <strong>and</strong> ATOC has accepted the Mayor’s oVer to fund the capital cost of ticket validators at stations. In
preparation for accepting Pay as you Go on the rail network, TOCs introduced zonalised rail fares in
January. Oyster Pay as you Go will be extended to Silverlink Metro services from November this year, to
Chiltern <strong>and</strong> c2c services as soon as possible, <strong>and</strong> to First Capital Connect <strong>and</strong> South West Trains from 2009.
Moving beyond that to accepting Oyster Pay as you Go tickets throughout Greater London requires
heavy investment in additional equipment <strong>and</strong> measures to deal with ticketless travel on a network that
operates more stations in London than the Underground.
National Rail covers a wide variety of services, interurban, commuter <strong>and</strong> local, <strong>and</strong> customers’ ticketing
needs are diVerent. Many are single-mode journeys <strong>and</strong> many would not benefit from smartcard ticketing.
Separating the transaction <strong>and</strong> the ticket will allow passengers to chose the combination that suits them best.
They may chose to buy the ticket on line, via telesales, or by text, <strong>and</strong> then print their own ticket, use a Ticket
on Delivery machine or a smartcard top-up, for example.
3. The Committee will look at the commitment of transport providers to collect due revenue, <strong>and</strong> will also
examine the balance between the rights of passengers <strong>and</strong> the duties of ticket inspection teams
No data is collected nationally on loss of revenue, but it is assessed as representing some £400 million, or
about 8% of revenue, of which about 60% represents ticketless travel (the rest representing travel with a
ticket that is not valid for the train or class of travel).
Revenue protection is relatively straightforward <strong>and</strong> generally well managed on long distance services.
On local <strong>and</strong> commuter services, revenue collection is aVected by three key factors:
— The time between frequent stops which may restrict the Conductor’s ability to collect fares.
— The cost of ticket inspection <strong>and</strong> fare collection.
— The risk of assaults on staV engaged in revenue protection, which has led to the deployment of Rail
Enforcement OYcers at stations <strong>and</strong> on trains.
The move towards e-ticketing <strong>and</strong> smartcard will clearly help to overcome the first two of these issues.
The level of revenue protection is variable on local <strong>and</strong> commuter services but the revenue risk of adequate
fare collection is with train operators, in whose commercial interest it is to collect the money. 100% checks
are not attainable so the deterrent value of penalty fares <strong>and</strong> the risk of prosecution are important incentives
to ticket purchase.
There sometimes appears to be a reluctance to prosecute for ticket fraud, <strong>and</strong> where prosecutions are
made, it sometimes appears that sentences given reflect a view that ticket fraud is not a serious crime.
Guidelines could be given on both prosecution <strong>and</strong> on sentencing which better reflected the serious nature
of the oVence.
7,397 ticket fraud oVences were recorded by British Transport Police in 2005/06, of which 4,415 (60%)
were detected. The number of oVences recorded represents less than 1% of the 1.075bn journeys made on
the National Rail network.