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Oysters for all trains unless you take SWT
Pippa Crerar, City Hall Editor09.01.09
Passengers will be able to use their Oyster cards on almost all of London's rail network by the end of the summer, the Standard has learned.
Underground and overground services will be "fully integrated" for commuters travelling from railway stations in the outer boroughs.
Boris Johnson is expected to make an announcement next week that Oyster cards will be accepted on almost all suburban trains -including for pay-as-you-go trips - from September.
The only exception will be for passengers on South West Trains covering routes from Waterloo to locations including Kingston and Basingstoke. They will have to wait for the completion of franchise negotiations with the Department for Transport.
The Mayor has put pressure on the Association of Train Operating Companies to let Oyster cards be used on all services ever since he took over at City Hall.
The 10 train operators resisted because of the costs of maintaining the readers and sales equipment and fears that fare evasion would increase as not all stations have automatic ticket barriers.
Transport for London is now installing Oyster machines at all stations across the city at a cost to the taxpayer of £40 million.
At a transport safety event yesterday, Mr Johnson said it was "crazy that commuters still had to buy a paper ticket to travel into London" and added: "I look forward to the day when you can use the same Oyster card to get round the whole of the capital."
A senior TfL source said a decision was expected next week. He added: "The equipment is being installed at our expense in every train station in London that hasn't got it, apart from SWT. We're hopeful the Mayor will be able to say something next week."
The Standard understands commercial directors of the train companies are meeting today to discuss the roll-out, with the plan expected to be agreed at an ATOC board meeting next week.
The move will benefit passengers who want to use Oyster but do not have a weekly or monthly rail pass to put on their cards. It could also help those who qualify for cut-price travel with Oyster but not on mainline rail tickets, although train firms are still expected to set full-price and season ticket fares.
A TfL spokesman said it was optimistic that Oyster cards would "be accepted on all rail services in Greater London by the end of this year".
Passengers on SWT will not be able to use an Oyster card for pay as you go, although they can load their season ticket onto one.
SWT wants to apply its own, more expensive, fares structure, and has other demands to which TfL is unable to agree. As things stand, it would only accept Oyster pay-as-you-go if readers across the Tube, bus and rail network were compatible with planned ITSO transport smartcards.
Reader views (18)
Any date yet for oyster at Feltham, Whitton, Twickenham.
Being penalised as bus fare plus train fare = more than travel card daily maximum.
Come on Borris get your finger out.
- Darron,, Feltham, uk
SWT suburaban services needs to transfered to London Overground, so that Londoners in South West London get decent stations and a proper service.
I pay extra council tax to subsidise London Transport but I dont get anything of the benefits as SWT is only interested in sucking out as much money for there greedy shareholders.
Whitton Station is covered in graffiti and dodgy people hanging about when its not manned.
My local area only has two trains per hour because long distance commuters (who cause the most pollution) get priority over thoes of us who live in London.
- John, Whitton, Twickenham
This will be great news for me (if it happens). I usually cycle from SE London to London Bridge but for various reasons have to get the train probably around once a week on average. At the moment, if I get the train, queueing for an overpriced single ticket is a right PITA and unpredictable queues make it hard to time catching the train - you end up either getting a ticket quickly and then waiting ages for the train or some massive queue has formed which makes you miss the train.
And the cost of buying singles is about 2.5 times the cost per journey of using a travelcard. Just catching the train two days a week makes a travelcard viable, particularly once queueing hassles are considered. And that can't be right - how is that any way to persuade people to use different options and relieve some of the strain on the overcrowded trains? If everyone walked, cycled or worked from home once a week then the trains would be much less crowded. But it's not viable with the current travelcard pricing distortions.
Plus, a joined up train and tube system would be much more useful for when I get a train and a tube (e.g. when I'm going to the West End).
- Zigster, London
It is disgraceful that SW Trains should be able to opt out on this as it affects so many people. Their franchise should be taken away from them when it comes up for negotiaition unless they agree to co-operate.
- Matt, London
Why has Boris agreed to use £40 million of taxpayers money to do this? Given their profits they should have done this themselves but then Boris is not exactly going to offend his city chums is he.
- Saunaing Tic Gill, London
Boris is not the person who thought about the Oyster pay as you go on all railway lines in London.
The decision was taken before he was elected, and he only gets the honours for the hard work started by his predecessor, Ken Livingstone.
- Marie, London
Great news, though South West Trains should hang their heads in shame; particularly as we're just moving to Twickenham and will have to use their service.
- Guy Mh, Camberwell to Twickenham
Ha ha to late.Use rail in this country and be treated worse than cattle? not me,i'm not cattle and I'm not gona be treated like cattle while the directors rub there hands banking the profits.
- Kev, London-UK
After these two events next week, will any TOCs announce dates for Oystercard Readers to come into use?
On the NXEA Shenfield line, most stations have now had readers fitted but not in use for 19 weeks.
- Alan Griffiths, Forest Gate, LONDON. UK
evasion is a puerile and non-excuse by the train operating companies. if they staffed the stations it wouldnt happen. its a simple concept but one which seems incomprensible to the idiots who run our railway networks.
- Josh, london
Excellent news. It's a pity that South West Trains aka Stagecoach are not co-operating but having used their "services" in the past when I lived in Surrey it comes as no surprises as customer service always seemed rather low on the agenda against profit and shareholder dividends.
- John David, London
This is fantastic news! Up until now I've only been able to use Oyster on my train to work if I need a weekly travelcard which I don't!
Well done Boris!
- Fay, Chislehurst
At the moment my travel card takes me from my main line statement into London and then onto Public Transport in London and I can use it as many times as I want during the week. However, what's the betting that once train passengers get oyster cards it'll end up being more expensive than the travel card method, as with travel cards if I wish to use my card on the buses lunchtime I can, whereas with the oyster card it will probably deduct one journey so I probably won't be able to use it lunchtimes unless I pay extra! SE Trains are already more expensive than any other line with an 8% rip-off increase on 2nd January and if you leave work anytime after 4.30 you can never get a seat!
- Sue, Orpington, Kent
Good news on the oyster cards. Just need to convince South West Trains to take part. Or perhaps it is time to get a new train provider!
- R Thompson, London England
When can we pay for stuff with the cards, like the Octopus cards in Hong Kong? From Starbucks to the local supermarket, it's dead easy!
- Suzanne, surrey
This is great news for us pay as you go users who were very restricted in use- a pay as you go oyster could only be used at an overground station which also had a tube, so sometimes it was difficult . No doubt Boris will take all the accolade for something which was probably decided before he took office!
- Kh, London UK
South West Trains operate services from 44 stations in London. And there are 319 stations in London. So 14% of stations and a huge volume of passengers won't see Oyster PAYG because of South West Train's obstinacy. Some serious pressure needs to be applied to SWT to get their act together. Believe it or not, they were obliged under their Franchise agreement to accept it from January 2009!
- Mark Lee, Vauxhall
Now perhaps he could get the trains running on time, mine has managed to arrive at it's destination on time once in the last 16 weeks.
- Bob, Cheam
