Ken Livingstone, a croissant and the smartcard challenge
A lot has been talked about smartcards following the recent government move to enforce the rollout of ITSO-compliant bus passes in the UK's transport network.
Under the scheme, which comes into force from 8 April, local authorities across the UK were required to issue smartcards to senior and disabled citizens.
But commuters will use the passes on a "show-and-go" basis in most of the UK because bus operators are not yet required to have ITSO-compliant reading equipment on board.
When Department for Transport (DfT) secretary Ruth Kelly announced the countrywide introduction of smartcards in September last year, it was mentioned that the e-ticketing rollout would mean lower administration costs incurred to local authorities - and ultimately the taxpayer, who would also – theoretically - benefit from more convenient commuting.
But, as opposed to what the DfT envisaged less than eight months ago, local authorities are spending more than saving in the rushed implementation of the dumbed-down smartcards, replacing many existing proprietary schemes integrating other functionalities such as access to leisure facilities.
And the cards will not serve their main purpose, which is reconciling travel costs between bus operators and councils. The process from now until 2010 – when he ITSO regulations will be enforced – is likely to be based on manual processes and emergency patches, which will undoubtedly add to the total smartcard bill.
In the meantime, bus and train companies are buying themselves extra time, as they are not required to show results for the next two years. Some bus operators, such as Go-Ahead, are already using their own smartcards, meaning that the existing equipment will only require a software upgrade.
But across the small, consolidated UK bus industry, the attitude towards the looming deadline varies from confidence to panic. A programme manager at a large bus operator told me it is "highly unlikely" that bus companies across the UK will make the smartcard implementation cut-off date, mainly because of the costs involved in installing new equipment.
In London, the main challenge is managing ITSO alongside the successful Oyster standard, since the rollout of cards with the new chips only (which could not be used in London buses anyway) would be a retrograde step and also increase the potential for fraud.
According to Transport for London, there is a concern that the convergence of Oyster and ITSO standards may not be sufficiently advanced by 2010 to enable the issuing of London passes as ITSO-compliant passes. As a consequence, TfL is now spending millions of pounds in the development of hybrid Oyster/ITSO card readers.
Now that we know Oyster is here to stay, it remains to be seen whether more train operators will take up mayor Ken Livingstone's £20m offer to help fund integration with the London smartcard scheme by the 2009 deadline. With less than a year to go, only a couple of operators out of the 10 firms running train services into London are nearing advanced implementation stages.
A couple of weeks ago, I met the London mayor in his last press event before the start of the electoral campaign. When asked the reason for a so-far limited uptake of Oyster technology, he said that "train operators are reeling on their heels" and are "happier to make money via fines."
Livingstone also said that IT would play a major role in his possible next mandate, with payment by mobile phone for Oyster cards and minute-by-minute bus information technology.
The mayor said that it would be "disastrous" if very large projects went wrong, so TfL will only use proven IT on large schemes such as Crossrail.
"We can’t afford to use technology that is subject to glitches in such complex projects. For that reason, we do a huge amount of research in countries such as Japan and Germany to see what has been tried and tested,” he said.
But when the mayor's repertoire of tech jargon ran out, he came up with the following:
"Today we are marvelling at the multiple possibilities of Oyster, but come back here in five or 10 years' time and we will have chips inserted under our skin or inside our heads,” he said.
“All the advances in technology mean we may not even need to use cards anymore," he said, to the general amusement of the PRs and journalists around me.
I left St Pancras station with the mayor as he moaned about being tired of the press marathon and general exhaustion due to the lack of exercise. “I need to find time to burn that fatty croissant I had this morning,” he said. OK, Ken, I'll let you off…