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Boris plans to 'Oysterise' overground rail services by next May
Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor12.05.08
Sweeping plans to get all overground railway stations in London to accept pre-pay Oyster cards were unveiled by Boris Johnson today.
The Mayor announced he was meeting private train operators for a crucial summit in the next few weeks in a bid to achieve a transport breakthrough Ken Livingstone had failed to deliver.
To underline his new approach, Mr Johnson revealed that he had secured a deal with First Great Western to allow pay-as-you-go Oyster cards at all its stations in the capital from September.
He said he was aiming to get the whole transport system using Oyster by May next year.
The agreement with Transport for London means tens of thousands of passengers will be able to use the electronic smart card to travel into Paddington from stations such as West Drayton, Hayes and Harlington, Southall, West Acton and Greenford.
Oysters loaded with travelcards are accepted everywhere but until now the pre-pay version has been available on only a handful of overland rail services.
Today's deal is part of Mr Johnson's drive to accelerate plans to "oysterise" the entire overland rail network serving London, aides said. Mr Livingstone wanted to extend the pay-as-you-go card, but ran into repeated rows with the private train-operating companies responsible for routes into the capital.
Transport for London chiefs have told the new Mayor that his less confrontational approach is already paying dividends with train firms and will as a result rapidly speed up the spread of the system.
Mr Johnson said: "This is excellent news for thousands of First Great Western passengers and takes us a step closer to making Oyster the only ticket you'll need to travel in London.
"Transport for London is investing £40 million in new Oyster equipment and I now urge the remaining train operating companies to get on board, agree their deals and open up Oyster for all Londoners."
The Mayor announced that he would hold a "summit meeting" with the train operating companies "before the summer". "Completing the roll-out of Oyster, improvements to services, station security and passenger safety will all be on the agenda," he said.
Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy said: "With 17 million cards issued since its introduction Oyster has been a huge success in speeding up journeys and cutting down on queues on the Tube, buses and national rail. As this agreement shows, we are working hard with the Association of Train Operating Companies so that National Rail better serves Londoners."
Andrew Haines, First Great Western's Chief Operating Officer, said: "This is good news for our Greater London customers, who will now be able to use Oyster facilities throughout their journey. The extension of Oyster onto the First Great Western network fits in with our considerable investment in the refurbishment of ticket offices and new ticket machines."
Mr Johnson, Mr Hendy and Mr Haines all appeared at Hayes and Harlington station this morning to mark the new deal. The pay-as-you-go system is currently accepted on London Overground, Chiltern and c2c services, Hackney stations on National Express East Anglia network and Clapham Junction to Watford services on Southern. Next year, South West Trains, which operates out of Waterloo, must accept Oyster under the terms of its new franchise.
About 78 per cent of all Tube and bus payments in London are now by Oyster card. In the five years since the introduction of Oyster card, the proportion of cash payments on the Tube and buses has fallen to three per cent.
Auto top-up can be set up online to ensure that passengers never run out of cash to pay as they go.
When your balance drops below £5, it will automatically be topped up with either £20 or £40 the next time you touch in on any yellow card reader on Tube, bus, tram, London Overground or Docklands Light Railway.
Mr Livingstone last year condemned London's private rail operating companies for refusing to accept all Oyster cards.
He offered £20 million to install Oyster readers in stations on the Tube network but talks stalled because ATOC said the cash failed to cover the cost of introducing ticket barriers.
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Reader views (8)
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A 'handful' of services is, when you actually look at the facts, most routes north of the Thames and over 100 stations out of 300 or so in the capital. Quite how this can be spun into 'Ken Livingstone failed to deliver' is beyond my comprehension, particularly given the overnight success of London Overground.
Also, FGW's PAYG implementation was announced back in February and when SWT finally get their act together it will be because the requirement was written into their contract by the Department for Transport, not Boris Johnson.
- Tom, London
It's OK as long as there's still the choice of not using Oyster. There's loads of benefits in using SouthWest Trains - with a Gold Card you get an annual set of free tickets and a third off in the evenings and weekends. You don't keep tap-tapping and your whereabouts aren't being monitored by card readers the whole time.
- Caroline, London
Had Boris narrowly lost the election his continually only mentioning a bus from the middle of the last century would have been his history of transport when he ran for mayor.
One benefit that will arise when the main rail companies accept oyster is a reduction in the number of people who appear not to pay on bendy-buses, the fact is these passengers only have paper tickets and therefore can not use the readers provided and therefore appear not to pay, this also means the total number of users of these buses is actually greater than recorded.
If Boris is keen on Oyster he needs to complete the removal of cash fares from the whole bus network by gradually expanding the pre-pay zone introduced in 2003 the west-end to the full congestion zone and then the whole of Greater London. Ken introduced the west-end pre-pay zone on the basis of protecting bus staff from robbery so finishing the job will both protect bus staff and also allow bus companies to reduce their operating costs which arise from handling a ever smaller cash amount at garages.
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex
