RMT Revenue rep Ifor Davies writes ...

On the face of it TfL/LUL produce figures showing ticket offices have declining sales. What the figures are showing will almost certainly be a temporary decline. In the run-up to the Olympics rail, tube and bus travel has been estimated to go through the roof, but that is not anywhere near the complete picture. There are also new transport schemes in the pipeline such as Cross Rail and East London Line extension which will push demand higher. This is nothing though compared to the demands the will be created by the next generation of smartcards.

The UK Government's Department for Transport (DFT) and the National Rail companies have been working on a new smartcard with more capabilities than Oyster called ITSO - (Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation) which is a non-profit membership body responsible for transportation ticketing specification, certification, licences, and business rules. ITSO also refers to a specification for transportation smartcards. ITSO was founded in 1998 as a result of discussions between various UK Passenger Transport Authorities concerning the lack of suitable standards for inter-operable smartcard ticketing. In other words Oyster cards were not compatible with the other smart schemes that were in the pipeline.

When the Mayor announced he was getting the rail companies to sign up to accept Pay as You Go Oyster, there was something hidden in the small print and press releases. This secret was he also had to sign up to the proposed National Rail Smart Card Scheme (ITSO) and pay for all TfL Oyster readers to accept ITSO.

The small print said 'Transport for London has also agreed to work with the Department for Transport to ensure that all Oyster equipment is capable of accepting other smart cards. These are currently under development for use on public transport across the country by the Integrated Ticketing Smartcard Organisation (ITSO).' Read more on this here.

At present ITSO is still in its development stage and when it is ready passengers will only need one smart card to download their National Rail Single/return or season ticket, potentially their seat reservation and additionally top up their London Pay As You Go for Tube/bus all on one card!

Right now most local authorities are having their free/concessionary travel schemes issued on to ITSO cards. By 2010 the first ITSO cards in London will appear as Freedom Passes and quite possibly soon afterwards as TfL Staff and Nominee Passes.

Do I need to keep writing? Has the penny dropped yet? Queuing at LUL ticket offices will potentially go through the roof with all this brand new demand. People without home computers wanting to top up their cards with the appropriate Saver Return ticket to say Aberdeen plus some Tube travel and maybe a reservation as well.

Why would a passenger want to queue at say Holloway Road or Heathrow Airport to buy a ticket and then queue again at Kings Cross when ITSO would allow them to queue just once at the start of the journey and simply pay and go?

In the modern commercial world we live in, TfL and the Mayor need to rebrand ticket offices as Integrated Ticketing and Smartcard Offices ( ITSO) immediately. Additionally this brand name needs registering as a trade mark at the Mayor's earliest convenience.

Sources:

• ITSO Website
• ITSO newletter