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The arrival of the full Oyster card service across London is a big event - something almost everyone will welcome.
Mayor Boris Johnson has understandably described the length of time taken to finalise the details of the deal with the train operating companies as "aeons".
He and his predecessor Ken Livingstone have had to overcome the obstructiveness of a number of rail operators.
With the full "Oysterisation" of the capital there will be a new map which, in time, may come to affect the way Londoners understand their city.With luck, it will tie south London more closely into the Tube-dominated north.
Oyster has been a huge success. It has made travel easier, reduced costs and demonstrates how technology can work to improve daily life.
Londoners must hope that during the public expenditure bloodbath that lies ahead, decent services can be maintained. But for now, welcome to Oysterland.
* Tony Travers is the Director of Greater London Group at the LSE.
Reader views (3)
One of the frustrations with all the time it's taken to roll out properly is that Oyster is not a new concept. Similar systems have operated in Paris (Carte Orange) and other cities for decades. No doubt it's easier to impose a pricing agreement when all the transport services are in public ownership, but it's difficult to escape the view that our public sector transport enterprises are very slow to identify and adapt good transport ideas from elsewhere.
- R. Goodacre, Putney, UK, 24/11/2009 05:17
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I see no cause for celebration when, even post-Oyster, it will cost nearly twice as much to travel to central London from Zone 6 in south London than it will from north London
Epping to Z1 (any station) £2.40
Teddington to Z1 (Waterloo) £3.20
Teddington to Z1 (anywhere else) £4.30
How is that fair?
- Tim, Kingston, 23/11/2009 21:06
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Tony is, of course right. But there are still some niggles. I will no longer drive to Tube stations to use my Oystercard on Weekday evenings. Weekends are a different matter. With my Network South East card, a paper Travel Card is cheaper than Oyster FareCap. So when will Network South East cards be able to go on Oyster?
- Alan Griffiths, Forest Gate, LONDON, 23/11/2009 19:39
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