Oyster card

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The Oyster card is a form of electronic ticketing used on Transport for London and National Rail services within the Greater London area of the United Kingdom. The card was first issued to the public in 2003 with a limited range of features and there continues to be a phased introduction of further functions. By March 2007 over 10 million Oyster cards had been issued and more than 80% of all journeys on services run by Transport for London used the Oyster card. According to Nicole Carrol, then of EDS, the name reflects the way "the oyster protects a pearl in much the same way that the card protects the cardholder's money." ^[1]

Contents 1 Background 2 Features 2.1 Period travelcards 2.2 Pay as you go 2.2.1 Pricing 2.2.2 National Rail 2.3 Capping 2.4 Recharging 2.5 Auto top-up 2.6 Reporting 2.7 Oyster photocards 2.7.1 Students over 18 2.8 Roll-out history 3 Usage statistics 4 Future 4.1 Beyond London 4.2 E-money 4.3 Future roll-out schedule[citation needed] 5 Issues 5.1 Tourists 5.2 Privacy 5.3 Design 5.4 Software fault 5.5 Pre pay launch 'bug' 5.6 The difference between pay-as-you-go and Travelcards 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Background

The Oyster card is a contactless smartcard, with a claimed proximity range of about 8 cm (3 inches). The scheme is operated by TranSys, and is based on Philips' MIFARE Standard 1k chips provided by G&D and SchlumbergerSema. ^[2] It is the same contactless smartcard as Touch 'n Go card in Malaysia which is mainly used for tollway fares.

Travellers touch the card on a distinctive yellow circular reader (a Cubic Tri-Reader) on the automated barriers at London Underground (also commonly known as the tube) stations to 'touch in' and 'touch out' at the start and end of a journey (contact is not necessary, but the range of the reader is only a couple of centimetres). Tram stops and buses also have readers, on the driver/conductor's ticket machine or, in the case of articulated buses, near the other entrance doors as well. Oyster cards can be used to store both period travelcards and bus passes (of one week or more), and a pay-as-you-go balance.

The system is asynchronous, with the current balance and ticket data held electronically on the card rather than in the central database. The main database is updated periodically with information received from the card by barriers and validators. Tickets purchased online or over the telephone are "loaded" at a preselected barrier or validator.

Non-Oyster tickets (referred to below as paper tickets) take various forms. Bus tickets issued at bus stops are usually thermally printed; tickets usable at tube, DLR, and rail stations are cards with a magnetic strip which activates barriers in the same way as Oyster cards.

[edit] Features

[edit] Period travelcards

Main article: Travelcard

The card can hold up to three ticket products at the same time. These tickets may be Travelcards valid in specified zones or bus passes. Both Travelcard and bus passes may be issued for validity of one week or longer, up to one year. The Oyster card is designed to be multi-modal and works across London's Tube, DLR, tram and bus network. Users with period Travelcards can also travel on rail services within the Travelcard zones, roughly corresponding to the Greater London area in all the zones they have validity for on their card. Travelcards can be loaded onto the Oyster card up to a month in advance of their start date.

[edit] Pay as you go

In addition to ticket products, Oyster cards can also be used for stored value travel. Oyster cards can be topped up with stored value of up to £90. The pay-as-you-go (initially known as "pre pay") balance is automatically debited by the correct fare at the end of each journey by Tube or DLR and each time a bus or tram is boarded. The balance is also debited by the relevant amount if the user travels by tube or DLR beyond the zonal validity of any travelcards stored on the card.

When using pay-as-you-go at stations with barriers, debiting is seamless, as users need to use the card to open the barriers. At stations without barriers, users have to remember to touch the card on a validator at the beginning and end of the journey in order to debit the card by the correct amount.

Pay as you go users can also use certain sections of National Rail (mainly between stations also served by London Underground. Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London is trying to persuade all National Rail train operating companies to allow Oyster pay as you go on all of their services.

[edit] Pricing

Pricing is fairly complex, and changes from time to time; it is best checked on the TfL website[1]. To encourage passengers to switch to Oyster, non-Oyster fares were substantially increased after the introduction of Oyster, and Oyster fares are generally much cheaper than non-Oyster.

As of 1 January 2007 a cash bus and tram fare costs £2, while the single Oyster fare is £1, but capped at £3 for any number of trips in a day. When using Oyster on the Underground, a single trip within Zone 1 costs £1.50 (£4 paper), or £1 (£3 paper) within any other single zone. When travelling on the Underground and DLR in addition to buses and tram the price of journeys is capped at 50p below the price of the relevant one-day Travelcard. London is the only city in the world that offers this daily price capping.

Single Oyster fares on the Tube and DLR start at £1. Some examples for comparison:

Single ticket type	Paper ticket	Oyster
		Mon-Fri 7am-7pm	All other times
Zone 1 only	£4	£1.50
Zone 1 to 6		£3.50	£2
Zone 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 (or any two adjacent)	£3	£1
Zone 2 to 6		£1.80

Oyster cards can be purchased at London Underground ticket windows, from cash-only vending machines at some stations, from about 2,300 Oyster Ticket Stop agents, from a select number of national rail stations also served by London Underground, over the web at oystercard.com or by calling the Oyster helpline at 0845-330-9876. A refundable deposit of £3 is paid unless a weekly or longer period ticket is loaded to the card in the first instance. A registration form is provided at the time of purchase. If the form is not completed the Oyster card is restricted to pay-as-you-go and weekly tickets.

In order to prevent "misuse" by a stated 2% of passengers, from 19 November 2006 pay-as-you-go users who do not both 'touch in' at the start and 'touch out' at the end of their Tube, DLR and rail journeys are charged a 'maximum cash fare' of £4 for most journeys, or £5 if the journey begins or ends at certain National Rail stations.

[edit] National Rail

Main article: Oyster card (pay as you go) on National Rail

The acceptance of pay as you go on National Rail has been limited to a restricted number of services^[3] where alternate routes are available on London Underground.^[4] In response to an offer, from Transport for London, of funding to the train operating companies that have services within Greater London, there are currently various plans to expand its acceptance across the rail network in London.^[5]It is expected that Oyster pay as you go will be accepted on most national rail services in London by January 2009.

[edit] Capping

A 'capping' system was introduced on 27 February 2005, which guarantees that an Oyster card user will be charged no more than the cheapest combinations of single tickets, travelcards and/or bus pass that cover all journeys made that day. A 50p discount is given where the price is capped at the travelcard or bus pass rate. Unlike paper daily travelcards, Oyster cards capped at travelcard rates are not valid on National Rail services other than those routes which accept Oyster pay-as-you-go.

[edit] Recharging

Users of the system can purchase tickets or increase the pay-as-you-go balance on their card at the ticket office or at touch-screen ticket machines at Underground stations, over the telephone, online at the Oyster card website ^[6] or from around 2,300 Oyster Ticket Stop agents.

[edit] Auto top-up

Customers can also register a debit or credit card online, which will be debited automatically by their preference of £20 or £40 when the pay-as-you-go balance on the card falls below £5. A light on the Oyster reader flashes to indicate the auto top-up has taken place and an email is sent to confirm the transaction.

[edit] Reporting

Touch screen ticket machines report the last eight journeys and last top-up amount. The same information is available as a print-out from ticket offices. The balance is displayed on some Underground barriers at the end of journeys that have caused a debit from the balance and can also be requested at newsagents and National Rail stations that provide a top-up facility. A report detailing all transactions where the Oyster card has been 'swiped' can be requested from Transport for London: Transport for London can provide the journey history for the previous 8 weeks, but no further back. The Oyster website gives details of the most recent journeys charged to pay-as-you-go if and only if credit has been purchased online, but not for other journeys, or those paid for by travelcard.

[edit] Oyster photocards

Oyster photocards, with an image of the authorised user on the card front, are issued to members of groups eligible for free or discounted travel. The cards are encoded to offer discounted fares and are currently available for students in full-time education (30% off season tickets), 16-17 cards (child rates for single journeys, discounted period travelcards, free travel on buses and trams for students) and for children under 16 years old (free travel on buses and trams and discounted single fares on the Underground and DLR). An Oyster Freedom Pass, with separate non-Oyster photocard, is issued to those over 60 or with disabilities for free travel.

[edit] Students over 18

Student Oyster photocards, valid for one year and giving 30% discount on period tickets, are available to full-time students over 18 at registered institutions within the area of the M25 motorway, an area slightly larger than Greater London. There is no discount for pay as you go.

A replacement for lost/stolen cards cost £5 and involves a new application with a photo. The funds/remaining travel is non-transferable to a new student Oyster and is refundable instead. But the "Refund" of a lost/stolen Oyster card is based on the original pro-rata daily rate. Thus if you lose an "annual" student Oyster, the refund will not cover the remainder of the year due to the higher monthly/weekly pro-rata charges for the remainder of the year. This can leave students at a considerable disadvantage, if their cards are lost https://photocard2.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/gotoStudentFaq.do

Since 8 September 2006, students at some London universities have been able to apply for their student photocard online by uploading a digital image and paying with a credit or debit card. According to Transport for London, other universities are expected to join the scheme. ^[7]

[edit] Roll-out history

The roll-out of Oyster features and migration from the paper-based system has been phased. Milestones so far have been:

• Cards issued to Transport for London staff (2002)
• Cards issued to the public for annual and monthly tickets (2003)
• Freedom Passes issued on Oyster (2004)
• Pay-as-you-go (prepay) launched on the tube and DLR (January 2004)
• Off-peak fares launched (January 2004)
• Annual tickets available only on Oyster (2004)
• Monthly tickets available only on Oyster (2004)unless purchased from a station operated by a train company rather than TFL
• Prepay on buses (May 2004)
• Daily prepay price capping (February 2005)
• Oyster Child Photocards for under 16s — free travel on buses and reduced fares on trains (August 2005)
• Automatic top-up (September 2005)
• Weekly tickets available only on Oyster (September 2005) ^[8]
• Oyster single fares up to 33% less than paper tickets (January 2006) ^[9]
• Auto top-up on buses and trams (June 2006)
• Journey history for pay-as-you-go transactions available online (July 2006)
• Ability for active and retired railway staff who have a staff travel card to obtain privilege travel fares on the Underground with Oyster (July 2006)
• £4 or £5 'maximum cash fare' charged for pay-as-you-go journeys without a 'touch in' and 'touch out' (November 2006)
• Oyster Card for visitors branded cards launched and sold by Gatwick Express.^[10]

[edit] Usage statistics

Over 10 million cards have been issued of which around 5 million are in regular use. ^[11] As of March 2007, more than 80% of all tube and bus journeys use Oyster. Around 22% of all tube journeys are Oyster pay-as-you-go, around 4% cash.

[edit] Future

[edit] Beyond London

There are no immediate plans to extend the Oyster card to the national railway network outside the Greater London area, though the Association of Train Operating Companies is interested in developing an ISO 14443-type card like Oyster. Oyster was developed before the the Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation (ITSO) smartcard specification was agreed, and does not meet this specification. Consequently none of the modern computer-based, rail ticketing systems are able to issue Oyster-compatible tickets as of 2006; some older ticket-issuing equipment at stations served by London Underground but managed by Network Rail or their operators has been converted for use with Oyster Card.

The Department for Transport is endeavouring to get Transport for London to make Oyster an ITSO compliant system by 2009.

[edit] E-money

In 2005, Transport for London shortlisted two financial services suppliers to add e-money payment capability to the Oyster card. The scheme was planned to be used for purchases of low value, typically below £5 in retailers such as newsagents. It was planned that the e-money payment facility could be available from 2006. It was later reported ^[12] that e-payment plans had been shelved.

Instead, in December 2006, TfL announced^[13] that they had partnered with Barclays plc to pair standard credit card functionality with Oyster functionality on a single card. Under this arrangement, contactless e-money functionality would be provided using Visa Wave and Pay rather than Oyster Pay-as-you-go.

[edit] Future roll-out schedule^{[citation needed]}

• E-money (expected around September 2007)
• Pay-as-you-go on South West Trains (January 2009)
• Pay-as-you-go on London Overground (former Silverlink Metro) services (November 2007)
• Roll-out of pay-as-you-go on rest of National Rail network in London (January 2009)

[edit] Issues

The system has not been without technical setbacks and criticisms.

[edit] Tourists

Passenger groups have expressed concern that buying single travel tickets with cash is far more expensive than using Oyster Cards, and it is suggested that this is putting many tourists off coming to London.^{[citation needed]} Oyster has been promoted by Visit Britain and TfL, who sell them on their website and in their offices around the world. Despite this, visitors to London have often never heard of Oyster and its benefits, and are paying higher cash fares unnecessarily.^{[citation needed]} The £3 deposit is also seen as a deterrent to tourists.^{[citation needed]} Another complication is the confusing terms of validity on National Rail services which serve many popular tourist sites on the outskirts of London.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Privacy

The system has been criticised as a threat to the privacy of its users. Each Oyster card is uniquely numbered, and registration is required for monthly or longer tickets, which are no longer available on paper. Usage data are stored both on the card and centrally by Transport for London; recent usage can be checked by anyone in possession of the ticket at some ticket machines. Privacy groups consider it a form of mass surveillance and are concerned with how these data will be used, especially given the introduction of the London congestion charge by Mayor of London Ken Livingstone in February 2003.

The police have used Oyster card data as an investigative tool, and this use is increasing. Between August 2004 and March 2006 TfL's Information Access and Compliance Team received 436 requests from the police for Oyster card information. Of these, 409 requests were granted and the data was released to the police.^[14]

[edit] Design

The system has been criticised for usability issues in general system, website and top-up machine design. The most significant usability issue is that pay as you go customers who for whatever reason do not "touch out" at the end of their journeys will not be charged correctly. Users who have run up a pay as you go debt of as little as £1 are prohibited from using any period travelcards on the card until the debt is repaid. Another criticism is that problem diagnosis by London Underground staff is generally poor^{[citation needed]} as the system is new and complex, and the staff unfamiliar with all its workings and insufficiently trained; this causes passenger frustration.

[edit] Software fault

On 10 March 2005 a software fault meant that the Oyster system was inoperable during the morning rush hour. Ticket barriers had to be left open and pay-as-you-go fares could not be collected. ^[15]

[edit] Pre pay launch 'bug'

On the day that the pay-as-you-go went live on all Oyster cards, some season ticket passengers were prevented from making a second journey on their travelcard. Upon investigation each had a negative prepay balance. This was widely reported as a major bug in the system. ^[16] However, the reason for the "bug" was that some season ticket holders, either knowingly or otherwise, were passing through zones not included on their tickets. The existing paper system could not prevent this kind of misuse as the barriers only checked if a paper ticket was valid in the zone the barrier was in.

[edit] The difference between pay-as-you-go and Travelcards

Transport for London has heavily promoted the Oyster card, with many adverts seeking to portray it as an alternative to the Travelcard. However one-day Travelcards cannot be loaded onto the cards, whilst the pay-as-you-go facility does not work on most National Rail routes. In late 2005 the Advertising Standards Authority ordered the withdrawal of a poster that directly presented Oyster pay-as-you-go as a substitute for a paper Travelcard and claimed it was "more convenient" with "no need to plan in advance", after the ASA ruled that the lack of National Rail support meant that the two products were not directly comparable. ^{[17] [18]}

Validity of pay-as-you-go fares on National Rail routes has been a source of confusion since the launch of Oyster, with passengers frequently being caught out trying to use pay-as-you-go on rail routes where it is not valid. On some rail journeys for which PAYG is accepted, users may not board or alight at intermediate stations, which adds to the confusion and the risk of inadvertently failing to pay the correct fare. TfL published a list of routes and stations ^[19] , but it was not until November 2006, three years after the launch of Oyster, that National Rail issued a map ^[20] detailing the extent of pay-as-you-go validity.

[edit] References

1. ^ RFID News - A tube full of Oysters? London goes contactless ...
2. ^ MIFARE.net - Easing travel in London’s congested public transport network
3. ^ National Rail - Oyster Pay As You Go (PAYG) on National Rail (PDF)
4. ^ Transport for London, Your Guide to Oyster, (2004)
5. ^ Transport for London - Train operators' Oyster acceptance welcomed
6. ^ Transport for London - Oyster online shop
7. ^ Transport for London - 18+ Student Oyster photocard scheme – academic year 2006–2007
8. ^ Transport for London - A faster, easier 7 Day Travelcard on Oyster
9. ^ Transport for London - Big savings in 2006 by switching from cash for single journeys to Oyster
10. ^ Mayor of London - Plane, Train and Oyster. 2007-03-06.
11. ^ The Guardian - Oyster data use rises in crime clampdown, (13 March 2006)
12. ^ The Register - TfL shelves Oyster e-money
13. ^ Transport for London - New deal brings Oyster and Barclaycard Visa onto one card
14. ^ OysterCardRFI - Letter from TfL in response to a freedom of information request
15. ^ BBC News - '£50,000 lost' in Oyster failure
16. ^ BBC News - Inquiry into Tube's Oyster card
17. ^ BBC News - Travel card poster ordered down
18. ^ Advertising Standards Authority - ASA Adjudication: Objections to four posters for the Oyster card, a ticket for travel within London.
19. ^ "Oyster Single Fares to pay as you go on National Rail Services in London", Transport for London. Retrieved on 2006-12-30.
20. ^ "Map of Oyster Pay As You Go on National Rail", National Rail. Retrieved on 2006-12-30.

[edit] External links

• Transport for London - Oyster card

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