Prestige claims commercial success: today, nearly every large transport operator or authority is deploying, procuring or planning a smart card-enabled fare payment system. One of the largest and most interesting is the Prestige project in London

International Railway Journal, Feb, 2005

SPEED, reliability, and flexibility are just a few of the reasons why contactless smart card technology is becoming well established in public transport. Transport users, like all consumers, have three basic wants: to save time and money, and offer more flexibility and control.

More recently, some proof that smart card technology has been accepted in public transport is the commercial success of London's Prestige project, using the Oyster card. Prestige has been designed, managed, implemented and marketed by the TranSys consortium, whose principle partners are Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS), in partnership with Transport for London (TfL). TranSys has also been shortlisted for a Best Management Practice award in the "Technology Exploitation" category for its delivery of the Prestige project. Despite the importance of the Oyster card itself, the smart card is only part of the story. It is the infrastructure underpinning Prestige that really holds the key to its success.

The TranSys consortium partners have leveraged experience from working on integrated ticketing systems all over the world to achieve the objectives of a clearly defined business case. Lessons learned from establishing systems in places such as Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong have enabled the consortium to overcome the unique challenges of the Prestige project and create bespoke systems which address the specific needs of London.

For example, to help combat ticket fraud TranSys installed gates at 155 London Underground (LU) and eight mainline stations. When the contract for Prestige was awarded in 1998, ticketless travel on LU was running at 3.47% of total revenue (amounting to about 43 million [pounds sterling]). By the end of 1999, when gating was virtually complete, this had been substantially reduced. The range and convenience of payment options has been extended to enable customers to buy tickets for travel at a time and place convenient to them, reducing the pressure on LU station staff and effectively giving time back to regular commuters and occasional Oyster users. Tickets for travel can be purchased online, over the phone, at more than 2200 local ticket outlets called Oyster Ticket Stops, at LU station ticket offices, travel information centres and at participating national railway stations.

Proprietary software enables customers who purchase their tickets over the internet or telephone to collect them simply by touching their Oyster card on any reader at a nominated LU, Docklands Light Railway (DLR)--which is integrated into the LU fare system--or national railway station.

Customers can now have up to three season tickets and store Pre Pay, the pay-as-you-go option, onto their Oyster card at the same time. This eliminates the need for paper ticket extensions for travel outside the zonal validity of their season ticket, In preparation for the Oyster branded smart card, which is the most visible aspect of the project to consumers, some 16,000 smart card readers were installed.

But it is behind the scenes where the most significant changes have taken place. TranSys has completely overhauled, upgraded and rationalised the processes and procedures which support the revenue collection.

A bespoke centralised computing system has been designed and built to manage and control revenue collection for ticket sales across every ticket outlet, and to collect journey data. TfL now has unprecedented levels of relevant, reliable and robust information about trends in ticket sales and transport system usage. This data is used to provide a more complete picture than ever before of the travel and purchase habits of customers. This can then be analysed to accurately plan future services and expansion.

It took almost five years for the Prestige infrastructure to be installed. This has included new and upgraded ticket machines, retail terminals and software for ticket offices and local ticket outlets, gates and validators at stations, and the creation of back office systems. All this was achieved without disrupting existing services and there was no discernable impact on the travelling public.

Lessons Learned

The experience of developing integrated ticketing systems in major cities around the world holds valuable lessons for service providers in the future.

TranSys' chief executive, Mr Steve Beer, said: "We believe that the success of any system relies on teamwork, communication and constant feedback. In a project as complex at Prestige each stakeholder will have different needs, which must be identified and addressed within the overall vision of the project.

"Prestige and other successful projects have been characterised by the shared vision of all those involved. In our experience this, coupled with built-in flexibility allows projects to accommodate changes to scope and requirements. No project is without its problems and it is unlikely that original plans will match the eventual roll-out. The key is to approach the task as a team so that you arrive at a solution which everyone is comfortable with."