Barclaycard has completed technical trials of a smartcard that combines contactless payment, credit and Oyster travel features (Computing, 18 January).

The company has been testing the smartcard with about 80 staff at its Northampton office, and will now widen the pilot to another 2,000 employees.

The integrated card allows staff to pass through ticket barriers at London Underground stations and pay for low-value items by waving the card over a reader.

The card has a dual interface chip to manage credit card and contactless payments, and a separate chip to make and manage Oyster transactions. The chips send financial and travel information to separate databases.

‘The technical trial was to ensure the card functionality worked and that there were no hiccups with the technology,’ said a Barclaycard spokeswoman.

‘The trial was successful and we needed to ensure that there were no problems with the two chips on the card before rolling it out further.’

The combined card will now be issued to staff at Barclays’ Canary Wharf office to allow further testing of the Oyster travel functionality. ‘Northampton staff do travel into London but testing it at our Canary Wharf office will allow us to test the card under greater volumes of use,’ said the spokeswoman.

The card is the result of a deal between Barclaycard, Visa and TranSys, on behalf of Transport for London (TfL). It is on track to be rolled out to Londoners by the end of summer.

Butler Group analyst Sarah Burnett says the phased approached to testing the technology is a sensible one.

‘Extending it to 2,000 people will allow Barclaycard to identify any problems caused by more frequent use of the card,’ she said. ‘The trial will test the robustness of the system and whether or not it can process payment and travel transactions quickly enough.

‘If not designed properly, a cashless payment system can take longer than simply paying with cash, which leaves customers frustrated.’

Adding Oyster to the card is likely to ensure its success because Oyster already has mass market penetration. The customer base will grow as the travel payment system is extended to mainline rail operators over the next couple of years.