End of the Line for London Transit Card Operator
TranSys, the consortium that operates London's Oyster transit card system is to have its ú100 million (US$190 million) annual contract terminated five years early, Transport for London (TfL) says.
TfL runs LondonÆs public transit network, which includes buses and underground trains. Oyster is a prepaid contactless card that has largely replaced paper transit tickets in London, with 6 million cards in issue. A TfL spokesman said that the move is not related to two Oyster system failures (London Transit Card Fails Again) in July 2008. During the outages, staff had to manually open London Underground station ticket barriers, as Oyster cardholders were unable to use their cards to gain access. Transys is expected to reimburse TfL for the hundreds of thousands of pounds in losses that TfL incurred during the outages. The contract with TranSys was due to run until 2015, but TfL is exercising a "break option" to cancel it in 2010, the BBC reports. The BBC says that, by ending the contract, TfL could lose the right to use the Oyster brand, which is actually owned by TranSys. TfL has confirmed this fact, but insists that "TfL will ensure the continuity of the brand in future arrangements," the BBC says. According to the BBC, TfL sees ending the TranSys contract as an opportunity to create a more cost-effective version of Oyster, which will save millions of pounds over the next few years. Related Links
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