LONDON FIRES TRANSYS FROM US$190 MILLION A YEAR OYSTER CARD CONTRACT
Transys, the consortium owned by Electronic Data Systems , Cubic Corp.'s transportation systems unit, Fujitsu's services unit and WS Atkins, responsible for operating London’s Oyster ticketing system has had its contract revoked by Transport for London (TfL) in a move aimed at saving millions.
TfL has exercised an option to cancel the 17-year contract after it has been running for 10 years. TranSys will continue to run the system for the next two years as TfL seeks to appoint a successor willing to support the ticketing technology for less cost than Transys. TfL says London Mayor Boris Johnson wants to improve the Oyster card to make it more attractive for Londoners and has charged TfL with making this happen quickly and in a way that represents the best value.
TfL said the decision was not related to problems in July 2008 when the Oyster system suffered two separate failures. On 12 and 25 July, TfL had to open ticket gates at London Underground stations after a computer problem disabled card-reading machines, both instances caused by a test carried out by TranSys that caused data tables to clash, affecting the ticket gates at 275 Tube stations.
In the 12 July incident, 78,000 Oyster cards were corrupted and TfL had to issue more than 40,000 new ones with the outstanding balances while the 25 July failure affected around 200,000 Oyster cardholders using “pay as you go” cards.
“We are looking at more cost-effective ways to manage and develop the Oyster card system that we expect will save millions over the next few years,'' said Shashi Verma, director of fares at Transport for London, in the statement.” TfL says the savings will be reinvested to deliver further improvements in London's transport system.