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

1 Introduction
1. On 1 April 2008 the English national concessionary travel scheme will be launched,
giving free national bus travel to older <strong>and</strong> disabled people in Engl<strong>and</strong>. This provides an
opportunity for the Government <strong>and</strong> transport operators to take a major step towards
integrated ticketing, with the introduction of smartcard concessionary travel passes
throughout Engl<strong>and</strong>. We have, therefore, inquired into the extent to which integrated
ticketing on public transport has been achieved for all users; the issues regarding
smartcards; arrangements for revenue protection (stopping fare-evasion) which will be
affected by new forms of ticket; <strong>and</strong> the impact of concessionary travel in Engl<strong>and</strong> which is
costing £1 billion per annum. We have not looked at fare levels as this issue was addressed
in our previous report How fair are the fares? 1
2. The history of public transport conjures up images of machines <strong>and</strong> infrastructure—
Brunel’s Great Western Railway with its engines, tunnels <strong>and</strong> bridges; the London
Routemaster bus; the reintroduction of trams in Manchester; <strong>and</strong>, more recently, St
Pancras International Station <strong>and</strong> High Speed 1. By contrast, the humble ticket rarely gains
a mention. Yet ticketing arrangements are just as important as vehicles <strong>and</strong> infrastructure
from the passenger’s point of view. How <strong>and</strong> where tickets are sold, whether different
tickets are needed for different stages of a journey <strong>and</strong> the form that the ticket takes, all
have a bearing on individuals’ travel choices. The Government recognised this in its 1998
White Paper, A New Deal for Transport – Better for Everyone, which proposed more
through-ticketing <strong>and</strong> easier ticketing arrangements as a central part of its strategy for
raising the st<strong>and</strong>ard of public transport. 2
3. <strong>Ticketing</strong> is an area which has seen rapid change in recent years: paper tickets served the
railways for 150 years <strong>and</strong> the magnetic stripe ticket for 30 years. 3 Contactless smartcards,
usually in the form of a plastic card with an embedded chip that can be read without being
inserted into a machine, have been in use for around 10 years <strong>and</strong> in London the Oyster
card is now commonplace. However, even these systems are being challenged by new
technologies, such as ticketing chips or screen displays in mobile phones <strong>and</strong> combined
travel, credit <strong>and</strong> bank cards. 4 We are grateful to Transys, who operate the Oyster system 5
on behalf of Transport for London (TfL), for showing us some of this new technology, as
well as giving us a demonstration of the Oyster system.
4. The latest rail franchises have varying commitments to introduce smartcard ticketing,
<strong>and</strong> arrangements are in h<strong>and</strong> to extend the Oyster Pay-as-you-Go system throughout the
National Rail network in London by 2010. It is already available on some routes. A zonal
fares structure has been introduced <strong>and</strong> station equipment to facilitate smartcard use is to
be installed, including ticket gates at Waterloo.
1 Transport Committee, Sixth Report of Session 2005–06, How fair are the fares? Train fares <strong>and</strong> ticketing, HC 700
2 Department of Environment, Transport <strong>and</strong> the Regions, A New Deal for Transport – Better for Everyone, Cm 3950,
July 1998
3 Q 71
4 The Barclaycard “OnePulse” card combines Oyster, a credit card <strong>and</strong> a cashless payment card. In November 2007, the
mobile phone operator O2 launched a trial of 500 telephones with embedded Oyster cards.
5 See Section 3 for an explanation of Oyster
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