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Oyster cards to be rolled out to every London rail line
Pippa Crerar, City Hall Editor27.01.09
LONDON'S rail and Tube services are to be fully integrated for the first time with commuters able to use Oyster cards across the network, the Evening Standard can reveal.
Mainline firm South West Trains, which was facing growing criticism over its refusal to sign up to the Oyster scheme, finally backed down in talks earlier this month.
Commuters travelling on the company's services into Waterloo will be able to use their Oyster pay-as-you-go cards in the autumn. Currently they can only load their season tickets onto the swipe card.
Transport for London is expected to announce next month that Oyster cards will be accepted on almost all suburban trains.
Boris Johnson and Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy have put pressure on the Association of Train Operating Companies to let Oyster cards be used.
The 10 train operators serving London initially 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 barriers. TfL is now installing Oyster machines at all stations across the city - including on SWT routes - at a cost to the taxpayer of £40million. SWT wanted to apply its own, more expensive fares structure and had other demands to which TfL was unable to agree.
However, TfL sources claimed today the firm had backed down. One said: "It now looks like all the train operating companies are coming on board, including SWT, which didn't look like the case a few weeks ago. There's now an agreement in principle."
Another TfL source added: "They have got too many other battles to fight at the moment and we think they decided that it was easier just to agree to go ahead with the Oyster roll-out so they could concentrate their energies elsewhere. It's great news for people travelling on those routes."
The move will benefit passengers who want to use Oyster but do not have a weekly or monthly rail pass.
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 spokesman for SWT said discussions were continuing and that the final deal had not yet been confirmed.
Reader views (13)
A better idea would be to scrap Oyster Cards completely. People don't want them (witness how it has been necessary to charge a 100% premium on cash fares to get people to use them).
Just think what the money saved could be spent on. How about ensuring that London has a bus service when it snows like other UK cities.
- James Thornley, UK
Why can't this be done anywhere within the M25 ?
- Joe, Swanley Kent
While extending Oyster to all of London's transport network will be welcolm, there will still be problems around the edge of London where stations are just outside the GLA boundary.
This has been solved in North West London where additional fare zones have been added which extend out to Watford. Similar arrangements will need to be made around the rest of London.
Ultimately all railways are planned to be covered by electronic ticketing but in the meantime I think some rail companies like C2C and Chiltern should consider installing Oyster at All their stations.
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex
Simon of Camberwell - I hope you will be able to get to the same destination using differenet methods of transport as I currently can. I can travel from Hayes (Kent) to Croydon all the way on the bus, or I can go part of the way on the bus and then hop on a tram to complete my journey and the tram part of the fare is included in the bus part of fare - although I think it is restricted to certain bus/tram routes.
- Shirley, London
I'm cancelling mine after just 10 days. I have been deducted money for journeys I never went on. There is no record of journeys for trips I did make. When I wrote (twice) to complain I received no response. Oyster .. no thanks.
- Andy Elephant & Castle, London UK
Phew, I thought we were going to miss out there. Well done Peter Hendy, TfL, the DfT and, amazingly, Boris, who must deserve a bit of credit for once - the culmination of this saga happened on his watch. More of this and fewer silly airports and buses, please.
SWT's calculus might be that PAYG will give them a boost in ridership just when they need it in the recession, with otherwise empty trains at least making them some money. My partner will certainly travel by train to work more if she can just use Oyster instead of wasting ten minutes at the station waiting for a ticket machine.
The devil's in the detail though - how will the fares compare to the Tube? It's £3.10 into town on SWT for me, £2.70 peak/£2.20 off-peak on the Tube.
- Tom, London, UK
But will the pricing be integrated? Will I for example be able to go from Denmark Hill to Victoria by rail and then on to say Oxford Circus by tube for the same price as I would by getting the tube from Brixton?
- Simon, Camberwell
Frankly, until they design a card that doesn't crack every time the wind blows in the wrong direction then I'll stick to my paper ticket thanks, it's a lot hardier than the 7 Oysters I've been through so far.
- Bob, Cheam
I understand your problem Sergio. It must be very confusing for people new to London, at my local station there are Oyster swipe readers in place at the ticket gates which are almost always left open. If I was newly arrived here and perhaps had a pay as you go Oyster card, I would assume that I could swipe it and go through, then swipe again at the other end. If the gates are left open, apart from the red light and beeping noise, which would mean nothing to someone not familiar with the Oyster system, there is nothing to tell you that you have done anything wrong and have not in fact failed to swipe your card. Also there are never any staff at the ticket gate to help out.
- Se Londoner, London
Colin - you're absolutely right, it doesn't accept rail passes, only travelcard seasons (at present) and PAYG (in future). If you want a rail-only season ticket, then you'll need to buy paper tickets. Unfortunately - not ideal - but it works for most people, as a large proportion of commuters buy travelcard seasons.
I will believe that SWT will accept Oyster PAYG when I see it. If they've been busy boosting profits by threatening to cut staff, ticket office opening hours, and train lengths, then I'd be mightily surprised if they're going to spend a single penny on Oyster PAYG.
- Mark Lee, Vauxhall
These oysters is unfinished project that needs serious and quick decisions to be made. Don't understand how can you realise unfinished project. The other day got fined £20 for travelling on prepay sorry but how was I supposed to know that prepay is not valid on some trains if I live on the other side of London.
- Sergio, Essex
It appears that the current situation is that weekly and monthly rail passes CANNOT be loaded onto Oyster - only zone-specific travelcards can. At least, I cannot load rail passes from the Oyster website or my local station.
- Colin, London
But will the tube be on time? No. All these extensions and gadgets are fancy but we need the core city transport to work first I think.
- Pat, London
