Oyster problems: Blame Transys

During today's Oyster failure, TfL put out a press release that includes the first hint of what the problem is:

This problem, like the recent issue, resulted from incorrect data tables being sent out by our contractor, Transys (a consortium of the firms EDS and Cubic).

They're probably referring to new fare and routeing data (there are a few changes due). No word yet on how this caused 65,000 cards to be permanently destroyed last time this happened.

Oyster readers to accept credit cards

Barclaycard's Onepulse combined Oyster/credit card also has a third function, "cashless", that allows you to pay for items by touching the card to readers found in a small number of shops. Over the next couple of years, it's hoped contactless payment will become a standard feature of all bank cards.

According to a recent presentation given by TfL, they're looking at whether this would allow bank cards to be used as Oyster cards. The idea is that you'd be able to touch any concactless-enabled bank card to the Oyster reader on a ticket gate or bus, and the journey would be charged directly to your bank account. It's hoped this would remove some of the administrative overhead of Oyster PAYG, and make it really easy for visitors to use the London transport system.

All 22,000 Oyster readers would have to be replaced to make this possible, but according to the presentation this is due around 2010 anyway. For one thing, they also need to add support for ITSO in the near future, which is a UK-wide Oyster-style transport card.

Another technology the presentation covers is NFC, which allows mobile phones to be used as Oyster cards and could mean being able to top up credit and check journey histories from the phone itself.

TfL Board Papers: June 2008

TfL held its first board meeting since the Mayoral election last week, and the papers are online. Highlights:

Oyster PAYG on National Rail

• The rollout of Oyster PAYG London wide will require work "at 240 National Rail stations [which] includes the installation of around 1,100 Oyster validators, over 600 ticket gate upgrades, ticket machine upgrades [...]"
• A fares proposal for Oyster PAYG has been submitted by the train companies, and is expected to be signed this month (July).
• "Southern has now agreed to allow installation of Oyster equipment to commence immediately."
• The Mayor's planned summit with train companies will look at "harmonisation of passenger standards (fares and information) plus interchange security and policing", as well as the headline Oyster PAYG issue.

London Underground

• "Prior to its introduction on the District line, the new Sub-Surface train will be introduced on the Metropolitan line (from 2010) and on the Circle and Hammersmith and City lines (both 2012)," as previously announced. This seems to contradict Modern Railways' claim of a change of plan.
• The Northern Line is now the most reliable on the network, with 98.5% of services running as planned, thanks to the new timetable.
• The opening of the Northern Ticket Hall at King's Cross St Pancras has been moved forward to December 2009 at the request of the Department for Transport, in time for the start of Kent High Speed rail services.
• The first new Victoria Line train will be tested in service in January 2009.
• Testing of the new Jubilee Line signalling system isn't going well, with only a 50% success rate.

London Overground

• Ticketless-travel on the Gospel Oak to Barking Line is down from 15% to 1.7% since London Overground took over.
• The first new London Overground train will be tested in Derby this month, though it's unclear when the first one will be tested in London.
• A few seats will be removed from the existing trains this month (as discussed for the GOBlin) to increase standing capacity and reduce boarding times.
• The new London Overground platforms at Stratford will open in December 2008. These allow the existing ones to be reused for the DLR extension to Stratford International.
• The first section of new slab track for the East London Line extension was laid on 12 April.

Crossrail

• A final Crossrail funding agreement is being prepared for signing in September.
• They're trying to get the Crossrail Bill passed before Parliament breaks up on 22 July, but it's looking "increasingly tight"
• The congestion relief plans for Tottenham Court Road tube station require powers granted by the Crossrail Bill.

DLR and Tramlink

• Track work for the DLR Woolwich Arsenal extension is complete
• Testing of the new DLR trains is being held up by getting electrical interference approval from London Underground at Stratford.
• An immediate cleaning and refurbishment of the Croydon tram system is planned now TfL own it, to be carried out by existing operating contractor First.

Mayor's Question Time

Since coming to power, Boris Johnson has taken part in two Mayor's Question time sessions. You can read his written answers here and here. Lots of predictable non-answers to awkward questions, but a few interesting things come up:

• The East London Line phase 2 extension does not have funding. If it does get it, the target opening date is December 2011.
• London-wide Oyster PAYG on National Rail is now officially pencilled in for mid-2009 (the January 2009 date has seemed unlikely for some time).
• London Overground carried 29% more passengers in its first 5 months than Silverlink did in the equivalent period a year before.
• Feasibility studies for the Oxford Street Tram will not be going ahead. This answer is notably more negative than that given to the other tram schemes (which are merely "under review"), so don't expect it to happen in the foreseeable future.
• On Cross River Tram, Boris notes "the Government’s 2007 spending review allocation of funds to TfL to 2017 did not provide for the implementation of CRT". It's looking like time to cross that one off the list as well.
• A North London Line extension to Kingston is officially off the table (if it was ever on it).
• Not transport-related, but I think question 1052 (in the second document) may be some sort of secret of code.

I've also listened to some of the webcast of the June 18th meeting. About an hour in there's a long discussion of the Routemaster/bendy bus replacement project, which Boris sounds very keen on pushing ahead with.

During the discussion an assembly member points out that the first wave of bendy bus contracts comes up for renewal next year, which will put the Mayor in a very awkward position. He could renew them (can't do that), replace them with double deckers (not enough capacity) or replace them with lots of double deckers (increasing congestion). An issue to watch, certainly.

First Great Western Oyster PAYG confirmed for September

The Mayor has announced that First Great Western will be the fifth train company to roll out Oyster on all its London services:

Thousands more passengers using these routes will be able to enjoy the greater convenience and speed of Oyster at stations from West Drayton and Greenford into Paddington. Zonal fares the equivalent of those on the Tube will apply for journeys from these stations.

Since April 20th they've accepted it on trains between Paddington, Ealing Broadway and Greenford, but at no other stations. Oddly there's no mention of Heathrow Connect, which is a surprise given much of the local service on this route is supplied by trains with that name on the side*. I shall enquire.

Boris also promises a summit with the five remaining companies to get their agreements sorted out. Apart from South West Trains, none have legally committed to accepting PAYG any time soon. Southeastern do publicly "hope" to accept it by January 2009.

Update: Just had confirmation that, as expected, this applies to Heathrow Connect as far as Hayes & Harlington, but not to Heathrow.

* Heathrow Connect isn't a company, it's the manifestation of an agreement between BAA/Heathrow Express, First Great Western and various government bodies, and has a suitably byzantine operating structure

Oyster PAYG on First Great Western could be due in May

An anonymous tipster points me to this set of London Travelwatch minutes, which say:

Meeting with First Great Western (FGW) and Passenger Focus to discuss implementation of Oyster pay as you go on FGW. This was on schedule for May 2008 – nine months ahead of most other train operating companies (TOCs).

An early rollout was mentioned at another London Travelwatch meeting.

First Great Western recently started accepting Oyster PAYG between Greenford and Ealing Broadway, with an extension to Paddington due soon. This announcement appears to allude to all their London services. It may also include Heathrow Connect as far as Hayes & Harlington, since that portion is technically a First Great Western service.

I also note 9 months from May is February 2009, which is either a miscalculation or they're expecting other companies to miss the advertised January date.

Paddington getting ticket gates

Ticket gates are now being installed at Paddington station to wall off most of the suburban platforms and resolve the lack of full gating on the mainline platforms. They should come into use in the next month or two, hopefully coinciding with the extension of Oyster PAYG.

The current setup is fairly interesting. Platforms 2-5 are gated at the concourse end, but the footbridge halfway along allows free access from the ungated platforms. Similarly, the gates on the footbridge for the Hammersmith & City Line (15-16) also include platforms 13-14, which are ungated at the concourse end, again making it easy to slip behind them.

The plan is to put a new gateline across the north side of the concourse (pictured) to enclose platforms 10-16, and move the H&C gateline along the footbridge to match. New gates on the footbridge will properly close off 2-5 (this diagram from the planning application should make everything clear).

Of the remaining platforms 1 is used for access and essentially ungateable; 6 and 7 are dedicated to Heathrow Express; leaving only 8-9 conspicuously ungated.

[diagram via uk.railway]

Imminent changes to Oyster PAYG

London Travelwatch have posted minutes from a meeting where TfL discussed how Oyster PAYG is working out on London Overground, and related matters. Highlights:

• The elimination of Cheap Day Returns is causing problems with fare anomalies at Richmond, Watford Junction, West Hampstead and others. They plan to reintroduce them from Richmond in February and do some unspecified fiddling in May (This should please diamondgeezer).
• First Class fares are to make a comeback for journeys where London Midland or Southern have it available.
• Richmond to Stratford on Oyster PAYG is still charged as via Z1, regardless of route. They plan to review anomalies like this in May, and "there are also likely to be two different fares depending on the route", though I've no idea how that will work.
• Oyster PAYG take-up and revenue in general has been much higher than expected.
• There's no Oyster ticket machine at Clapham Junction due to objections from South West Trains, so a local newsagent is doing a brisk trade (this was thought to be resolved in October, but apparently not).
• First Great Western's rollout of Oyster PAYG to all its London stations may happen "sooner than previously anticipated." Ealing Broadway to Paddington is due "shortly" ("Spring" according to this map)

[via uk.transport.london]

February Board Papers: Miscellaneous notes

I've already posted separately about ELL Phase 2, the Southern franchise takeover and Shepherd's Bush Overground but there are a lot of other things worth noting:

• Another follow-on order for new London Overground Electrostars is planned for this month.
• Roll out of Oyster PAYG to the whole London rail network is still pencilled in for next January.
• The renaming of Shepherd's Bush (H&C) to Shepherd's Bush Market will happen when Shepherd's Bush (Central Line) reopens, not when Wood Lane opens (which may be earlier) as previously announced. There's likely only weeks in it.
• The King's Cross St Pancras tmporary tunnel is known as the 'Hockey stick'.
• Royal assent for the Crossrail Bill is expected by the end of July. A Lords committee will consider petitions from 19 Feb until mid May.
• Purchase time at tube ticket machines is down to "0.28 minutes".
• The East London Line officially ceased to be a London Underground line on 22 January, when they finished clearing their things and handed it over to contractors.
• Replacement signalling (and ultimately Automatic Train Operation) is due on the Jubilee and Northern Lines by December 2009 and September 2011 respectively, with the first part of the Jubilee commissioned this October.
• A tender for new Piccadilly Line trains has just been issued.
• The first S-Stock train is due for delivery for testing in January 2009.
• The first new DLR train was delivered on 22 December. The whole first 'Woolwich Arsenal' batch is due in service by September, with a follow-on 'Olympic' batch coming next.
• They're still deciding how to progress the Cross River Tram scheme.
• They're pressing on with Greenwich Waterfront Transit and East London Transit, and are due to start October 2009 and July 2011 respectively,

You can read more in the board papers PDF.

Board Papers time again

The notes from this month's TfL board meeting have been published. A few things of note:

• TfL have started ordering Oyster equipment for the roll out to the whole National Rail network in 2009
• London Bridge may not have capacity for South London Line trains when it's rebuilt for Thameslink (there'll be fewer terminus platforms). TfL suggest the East London Line phase 2 should go ahead ASAP to solve this problem.
• Major DLR works will happen at Stratford during the Christmas closure on Liverpool St (this probably actually means the new North London Line platforms).
• An "Oyster Control Centre" has been setup, whose main job seems to be reprogramming the gatelines to fix unresolved journeys after station evacuations and other events.
• The first new Piccadilly Line train is due in 2011, with the upgrade progamme finsihed by 2014
• TfL are having doubts about how feasible it is to extend Circle Line stations for 7 car trains, and are investigating other options.
• TfL are still deciding whether to go with the "Harmony" or SLC2k service patterns for the North London Line upgrade. No idea what either of these are.
• The future of the Cross River Tram and Crystal Palace Tramlink extension looks very murky
• "The review of a number of projects in the Planning directorate continued this quarter, including tram and bus transit schemes. The outputs of these reviews are expected to be made available at the end of the year."
• The East London Transit project (Ilford-Barking-Dagenham) appears to be progressing, but isn't due to start in October 2009.
• Greenwich Waterfront Transit is still in public consultation, and will take even longer.
• A TWA application for the DLR Dagenham Dock extension will be made early next year, but the project has no funding after that.

The last few bits are from the appendices.

Update: The document has been updated with a load of extra bits tacked on, including enormous tables of Travelcard and London Overground prices.

Railcard discounts on Oyster PAYG

Another new thing in the fares leaflet is the availability of Railcard discounted fares caps on Oyster PAYG. You'll be able to have your Young Persons, Disabled Persons, HM Forces or Senior Railcard loaded onto your Oyster card (no details how) and from then on the off-peak fares cap for you will be around a third lower than normal (e.g. £3.10 vs £4.80 for Zones 1-2). There doesn't appear to be a discount on peak caps or single journeys.

Oyster PAYG extensions this January

The new fares leaflet is on tube station leaflet racks everywhere, though not yet online. It confirms the new National Rail route sections where Oyster PAYG will be valid from January, though they're not quite as expected:

• Grays to Upminster and Barking on c2c. This covers all their London stations, with the exception of their few trains to Liverpool Street where Forest Gate and Maryland still aren't covered.
• West Ruislip to Marylebone on Chiltern, covering all their London stations.
• Greenford to Ealing Broadway on First Great Western, but not at intermediate stations. This is a surprise, but since both already have PAYG for their tube services, no expenditure was necessary.
• All intermediate stations between Walthamstow Central/Tottenham Hale/Seven Sisters (i.e. the Victoria Line) and Stratford/Liverpool Street on 'one'. 6 of the 9 added stations are in almost-tubeless LB Hackney. The promised expansion to Chingford hasn't happened.
• Kentish Town to West Hampstead Thameslink on First Capital Connect. This actually happened last month for the launch of London Overground.

The brochure also confirms that both Southern and London Midland will be accepting Oyster PAYG between Watford Junction and Euston/Clapham Junction.

TfL October board meeting notes

Transport for London held a board meeting on Wednesday, and today they published the stack of documents (5 MB PDF) produced for it. A skim through the 286 pages reveals:

Oyster

• On October 7, TfL began replacing the now-redundant push-button Few Fare Machines with Advanced Fare Machines, which do Oyster, but don't do change. 100 are planned by January, and the full 350 by April.
• TfL's rollout of Oyster to Overground faced problems at Clapham Junction, because South West Trains are meant to be selling ITSO rather than Oyster cards. TfL ticket machines will be installed at each entrance.
• Barclaycard expect to issue 75,000 OnePulse Oyster cards by the end of the year.
• Cash fares are down to 3.5% of tube journeys and 2.3% of bus journeys.
• All the train companies have finally signed an agreement for Oyster PAYG use, which includes details of how fares money will be distributed. The Financial Services Authority have confirmed the scheme doesn't fall under e-money regulations.
• It's stated "C2C, ‘one’ and First Capital Connect" will be expanding PAYG from this January, but I think they mean Chiltern rather than FCC (see this blog's sidebar).

London Overground

• The upgrade plans for the North London Line are due to be agreed with Network Rail this month, for delivery in 2010-11. This presumably includes resignalling, 3 and 4 tracking in places and platform extensions for 4 car trains. The associated improvement in service is called "SLC2k" and is due in January 2011.
• The superstructure design for the "bridge at Liverpool Street" has been approved. I'm not sure if refers to the one over the Liverpool Street tracks by Brick Lane, or the one nearer Liverpool Street station over Shoreditch High Street.
• The 3 extra Overground trains ordered in July are said to be dual voltage and intended for the North London Line, rather than for the East London Line as stated at the time. I'm not sure which is correct.
• Stations on the Gospel Oak to Barking line will get shelters by March 2008, and initial repairs at all Overground stations will be completed by May. The full upgrade programme will run until November 2011, however.

Tube, DLR, Rail and Trams

• Approval has been given to apply for the Victoria and Archway station upgrade Transport & Works orders.
• Automatic Train Operation on the Jubilee Line is due by the end of 2009, and on the Northern by the end of 2011.
• The first new Victoria Line train is due in service by January 2009.
• Southfields, Baker Street (SSL only) and Green Park will be made step-free in time for the Olympics.
• The DLR City Airport extension is carrying 48% of the airport's passengers.
• The first new design DLR car is scheduled to be delivered on 14 December this year, a bit behind schedule. It's already running on a test track in Germany.
• Train and platform lengthening are planned for many London National Rail lines (details are in the minutes).
• TfL has now officially disbanded the West London Tram team, and appear not to be leaving open the possibility of restarting the scheme.
• Funding for the Crystal Palace Tramlink extension appears hazy.

A couple more photos

A couple of photos of new things:

• The first is of one of the covered Oyster readers appearing on Silverlink Metro platforms. This is much prettier than the reader underneath, which were uncovered until recently and look like a GCSE metalwork project. These readers are also the nearest TfL have come so far to advertising to passengers that they're taking over Silverlink. Otherwise there's no sign of London Overground yet - even the new ticket machines are Silverlink branded, though only in software.
• The second is of one of the new projectors on the southbound Victoria line platform at Euston, and yes, they really are that huge. There's only 3 of them, and as shown in the picture, they seem to spend a lot more time than necessary switched off.

(Sorry, only had a camera phone with me)

Oyster Barclaycard now available

The Barclaycard Onepulse credit card is now available. It has a built-in Oyster card, but there appears to be no connection between it and the credit card function, so you'll still have to top it up manually or use auto top-up.

GOBLIN stations gaining ticket machines

In preparation for the handover to London Overground, ticket machines have been appearing at stations along the Gospel Oak to Barking Line. Since most stations are unstaffed halts and only a fraction of trains have conductors, it means you'll finally be able to pay for journeys on the line. Stations where the two platforms have separate street entrances are getting two machines, even where they aren't far apart.

The machines aren't switched on yet. The operator details card says Silverlink, so presumably they're not going to be left rotting until November. The circle on the right looks to be an Oyster reader for topping up, but there's no sign of separate Oyster readers for touching in and out.

Barclays Oyster card coming in September

Barclays have announced a name and launch date their combined credit and Oyster card. It will be named OnePulse and be available from September. You can see a few more details and pre-register on their site.

Tfl Board Meeting, 27 June 2007

The minutes from TfL's June 27 board meeting have been published. Of note:

• The Hackney Downs - Hackney Central interchange looks to be going ahead, though the only timescale given is sometime before the Olympics.
• Archway station will be made step-free 2009-2012, with a new passageway leading from the ticket hall to a lift shaft between the platforms.
• There are detailed diagrams of the Victoria station upgrade.
• TfL want to make Ilford, Bromley South, Ealing Broadway, Edmonton
  Green, Dalston Kingsland, West Croydon, Worcester Park, Gospel Oak, Hampstead Heath and Camden Road step-free, with the DfT paying the bill.
• The number of Oyster outlets will soon increase from 2,200 to 4,000.
• Oyster fares for London Overground are still being worked out, and there may be discounts initially.
• The East London Line extension, DLR upgrades, Stratford station upgrade and so on are all on schedule.