Oyster program gets rejected in St. Alban, UK
09 January, 2012
category: Contactless, Smart Cards, Transit
UK train operator, First Capital Connect’s proposal to extend the Oyster Travelcard and Pay As You Go schemes to St. Albans has been shot down by the government’s Department for Transport.
According to stalbansreview.com, the government department wants to focus on another form of smart card technology, Integrated Transport Smartcard Organization (ITSO). Currently, Oyster is not compatible with the ITSO specification.
“The extension of Oyster would have been a major benefit to our customers”, said spokesman from the train operating company, “However we recognize the additional benefits that nationally-accepted ITSO-compliant cards will bring to integrated travel.”
ITSO is the IT specification that enables different operators to develop systems that are all compatible so that they can interact with each other, thus allowing interoperable travel. The system is already developed and is being adopted by transport operators throughout the UK.
Read more here.