The document outlines the advancements and challenges of contactless ticketing in London's public transport system, highlighting Oyster's current success and shortcomings. It discusses new models emerging for urban transit fare collection that enhance customer experience while reducing operational burdens. The future scope includes interoperability with contactless credit and debit cards, aimed at facilitating ease of travel for both locals and visitors.

1. Contactless media for urban
transport services
Brian Dobson
Future Ticketing Technology Manager
Transport for London

2. Oyster today
• Complete multi-operator,
multi-mode smart integrated
ticketing system
• 46m cards produced (20K
new per day)
• Accepted on all TfL & TOC
rail services & all bus
services within London
• Used for 83% of all trips –
main non-Oyster usage is
Train & Bus travellers from
outside London.
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3. Big picture – where we have got to
• Contactless smart ticketing has
delivered the business case
– High gate throughput prevents bottlenecks
constraining ridership growth on rail
– Fast boarding time minimises bus fleet
sizes and drives up appeal of bus vs. car
– Fraud has been hammered
• But Oyster has issues:
– Expense is uncomfortably high given TfL’s
need to reduce operating expenditure
– Customer experience is far from perfect
• Could we do this even better?
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4. Majority of public transport fares come
from infrequent or irregular customers
“Commuters”
“Non-commuters”
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5. Oyster isn’t the perfect offering for these
customers – some things could be
better``
• ISO14443 standard contactless – fast & Keep
intuitive
• Pay As You Go travel with daily capping –
intuitive product that eliminates ticket purchase Keep
as a barrier to travel & drives up ridership
• Fare Data stored on the card – makes it
difficult to maintain and offer new Products Change
• Stored value purse on card – “non-commuters”
have to invest time in managing PAYG
balances and weekly season tickets
Change
• Oyster is London-specific – many visitors don’t
have it Change
4

6. Managing e-purses = changing
currency at the border
Welcome to London! – Eurostar passengers
switching to the Underground at St Pancras
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7. There is a credible contactless
alternative emerging in the UK payments
market
• Use ISO14443 standards
• Funds held in debit or
credit account, not on
card
• Source of most
customers’ funds, so no
need for pre-loading
• Available UK-wide &
internationally
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8. But fare collection is different from retail
payments – can PAYG be made to work?
Canary Wharf
25k people per hour
@ <0.5 seconds each
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9. But the industry’s CP transaction rules
won’t work for urban transport fare
collection
General CP rules Challenges implicit in transport
PAYG
Price is known before Price not known until rail journey is
the card is presented completed (or end-of-day if
capped)
Use of card counters to • Throughput needs set maximum
manage risk & acceptable transaction time of
occasionally fall- 500ms
forward to Chip & PIN • No PIN pads on transit
infrastructure
Terminal field is Neither staff nor time to manually
activated manually by activate terminal field for each
store staff
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10. Happily, the UK banks have developed
a new transport transaction model
General CP rules Agreed new rules for transport
PAYG
Price is known before Each tap is £0, then operator
the card is presented back-office calculates price daily
Use of card counters to Operator manages risks to provide
manage risk & equivalent protection within the
occasionally fall- 500ms time limit:
forward to Chip & PIN • Offline data authentication
• Deny Lists (DLs) in terminals
• Online auths from the back-
office
Terminal field is Terminal field is always active to
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activated manually maximise throughput

11. This new approach is being formalised
as a new set of rules for transport
transactions
Card – terminal Merchant
Visa, MasterCard interaction intermediate
and American (500ms Limit) layer processing
Express are Aggregation of
creating specific Merchant DL
journeys to daily
rule sets for processes
charges
transport
merchants that Liabilities &
cover these six Mid-journey
frequency of
areas inspections
authorisations
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12. Principles under-pinning the new
transport transaction model
• Single model applicable for all urban transit
operators
• Applicable to existing base of contactless cards
• Protect throughput of passengers at peak times
• Ensure Issuers can earn attractive volumes of
additional contactless interchange
• Ensure Issuers take minimal additional risks
• Ensure that customer statements clearly show daily
expenditures for each transit merchant
• Optimise role of transit merchants in providing
customer service
• Maximise fare revenues received by transit
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operators

13. The model brings benefits for
customers and transport operators
Customers Transport Operators
• Save time – “currency • Issue fewer smartcards
exchange” eliminated • Pay reduced commissions
• Save time – queues • Enjoy reduced customer
reduced service burden
• Save time – interoperability
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14. Two pre-existing projects set the
conditions for contactless credit debit
acceptance
• Replacement of
20,000 Oyster
smartcard readers
– Production versions
being installed
Changes
• Introduction of make these
wireless 3G “EMV ready”
communications for
Oyster on 8,500
buses
– Implementation
underway
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15. Oyster system will be enhanced to
accept contactless credit debit cards
on all modes
+
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16. Contactless credit debit cards = inter-
urban interoperability for PAYG fare
payment
• Distributed by UK card issuers to
customers across the country
• No city or regional distinctions
• Supported by UK-wide marketing
and customer education
• Very attractive product for
business or leisure travellers
visiting other UK cities towns on
an occasional basis
• Importantly, requires transport
operators to implement PAYG
travel in a consistent manner to
15 avoid customer confusion

17. Is TfL Mobile NFC Ready?
• Validation Readers will accept ISO 14443 Card Emulation
mode
• Support Contactless Credit and Debit applications
• Will not support Pin entry – TRANSIT not RETAIL readers
• MUST support high throughput – Response Target – 350ms
in near future
• Need power for Exit after Entry – 3 hours
• Suggested NFC ON/OFF switch to GSMA
• 8,500 Buses ready in Spring 2012
• Olympics 2012
• Tube / TOC / Tram / Light Rail by end 2012
• Significant interest by other UK Operators
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18. Broader uses of Mobile NFC
• Active contributor on NFC Forum White paper on NFC
for Public Transport
• Covers Use Cases for Travel Information, Service
Disruptions and Customer Services
• “I’m a Believer”
• Pioneered provision of Live Data Feeds to allow
development of Mobile Apps on Tube service
• Launching Bus Stop Countdown feeds this year
• Looking at use of Smart Posters and secure Tags
• London Transport Museum
• We await Your NFC Handsets and Services
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19. Mobile NFC for Public Transport
• Thank you for listening
• Open to Questions and Comments
• Email – Brian.Dobson@tube.tfl.gov.uk
• www.nfc-forum/resources/white_papers
• www.tfl.gov.uk/businessandpartners/syndication
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