Smart cards the ticket for London tube
dailynews.yahoo.com
By Edna Fernandes
LONDON (Reuters) - London's Underground subway system may be shabby, overcrowded and short of cash, but a one billion pounds project awarded Friday aims to give the metro state-of-the-art ticketing, which could cut fraud and save millions in revenue.
London Transport, public-sector owner of the metro known as the Tube, confirmed on Friday the signing of a 17-year one billion contract with the Transys consortium -- a team of four companies led by Electronic Data Systems and Cubic Corp. (CUB - news) of the U.S.
The new ''smart-card'' ticketing technology will cover the Tube's six million daily journeys, allowing it to clamp down on ticket fraudsters, with savings eventually estimated at 30-40 million pounds a year.
Under the deal, Transys will install, maintain and operate a ticketing system which uses credit-card-like tickets for use across the London tube, bus and some parts of the rail network.
The credit card-like ticket will eventually be adapted to allow customers also to use it for everything from making a telephone call, to using it as a credit card -- aiming to turn it into the Londoners' electronic purse.
''In future, we see Londoners leaving the house with nothing but their smart card. This will be possible in four years time,'' Transys' marketing chief Victoria Penda told Reuters in a recent interview.
Deputy Prime Minister and transport supremo, John Prescott, said: ''This deal is more good news for Tube users. Both Tube and bus passengers will benefit from new more flexible kinds of ticketing ... It also means that LT will be able to install ticket gates at all Underground stations, greatly reducing fraud and freeing up more money for investment.''
Using supermarket bar-code technology, the cards will contain ticket information which can be regularly updated with the aim of replacing paper travel cards and cash within years.
The first stage of the project will be installing ticket barriers with built-in scanners at all of the Tube's 274 stations, 33 mainline rail stations and 5,800 buses. Introduction of the smartcards will follow, with extra microchips for additional functions being added.
The system will enable passengers to renew their tickets over the 'phone, have touch-screen functions in six different languages and ensure easier travel through barriers, with scanners picking up bar codes and automatically opening gates.
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