Review: The Hidden Complexity of the Oyster Card

Most commuters in London use an Oyster card; the credit card shaped replacement for the Travelcard is in everybody's wallet these days.

Transport for London (TfL) is proud of Oyster and has invested a great deal of time and money in the scheme since its launch in 2003. TfL spells out the advantages of Oyster in its promotional literature:

'Oyster means no more queuing and it's quick and easy to use and recharge. In fact, it's the smartest way for customers to travel around London.'

My girlfriend keep hers in her handbag and simply waves her entire bag over the yellow swipe pad at the underground barrier and has no need to rummage around for the card itself; a very convenient thing indeed. Using the Oyster card is undeniably a faster way to get on and off tubes and buses - when it works.

As with many new innovative technical replacements for simple and basic solutions, such as the paper Travelcard, it takes quite some time for the intrinsic problems of the new designs to be discovered and reveal that what first appeared to be an ideal solution is actually less than perfect.

Oyster is not the quite the magic solution that TfL would like it to be. If you travel through London regularly, you may have recently noticed the signs and announcements from TfL about swiping your Oyster card even when the barriers are open:

'Remember, touch in & touch out'

But why should we need to do this, and what happens if you forget? The small print at TfL's web site detailing the Pre Pay scheme provides a little insight:

'This ensures that the start and end of your Tube/DLR journey can be recorded and the correct fare deducted from your Pre Pay balance. If you do not touch in and out at the start and end of each Tube/DLR journey you may pay more than you need.'

After emailing Oystercard customer support I discovered that if a commuter does not swipe in and out they will be charged the maximum fare, quoting from the Oyster customer support email:

'..if you do not touch in or out upon either entering or exiting a station the system will not be able to recognise where you started or ended your journey and will therefore charge you the maximum fare. The system will deduct the maximum fare immediately.'

TfL is automatically fining unsuspecting commuters that have not properly swiped their Oyster card on starting and ending their journey. Yet with the best of intent commuters will not always remember to swipe in and out if the barriers are open, and will not always swipe correctly when they do remember.

TfL's annual report may make interesting reading for 2004, and TfL should be prepared to respond if revenue from fines has significantly increased since the introduction of Oyster.

Recently, my girlfriend, upon her return from a work trip abroad needed to renew her monthly underground pass, stored on an Oyster card.

She made use of the Oyster kiosk, a dedicated machine from which to buy travel permits for Oyster cards. The Oyster kiosk seemed easy to use, and on-screen instructions indicated to swipe the Oyster card over a yellow pad on the front of the machine; current account details were then presented on the kiosk display and an option to renew the last monthly pass was easy to find.

Only after going through this process and attempting to use the renewed Oyster card at the electronic barrier did my girlfriend experience a problem. The card was not accepted; after a few attempts we approached the station attendant, who swiped the card over a handheld device and declared that the monthly pass was out of date.

Twenty minutes of Sherlock Homes style deduction later, including a full reconstruction of events at the kiosk, the station attendant revealed the problem. After the 'renew monthly pass' option had been selected, my girlfriend had forgotten to re-swipe the card, and when she walked away from the kiosk, the transaction had been automatically cancelled. It was not made clear whether her credit card had been charged for the monthly pass, but it was made clear that she would have to buy another monthly pass and take up the issue with the bank and TfL at a later date.

I have now twice experienced, and several times witnessed, error messages that randomly appear on the digital displays of the electronic tube barriers when is a problem is encountered with an Oyster card. "Error 94" is one such error, which I believe means that the card is out of date.

Nobody seems quite sure why the machines randomly produce Error 94, presumably the same reason that makes "Error 27" appear, which I have also encountered and which, according to the station attendant: 'is not a problem'.

If Error 94 appears, however, then the station attendant does think there is a problem; in fact they will not let you pass without a receipt for the ticket held on the faulty Oyster card to prove that you have actually purchased a ticket. Of course it is unlikely that you will have a receipt.

A key difference between the Travelcard and Oyster card is the printed evidence on the face of the Travelcard that allows the attendant to see that the card is indeed not out of date and is simply corrupt. Unfortunately this is not possible with the anonymous Oyster card, which if unswipable is deemed worthless.

If an Oyster card is corrupt the commuter is forced to buy another ticket and fill in and submit a refund form. The discretion of the attendant to let the commuter travel has been effectively removed.

Nobody can argue that Oyster is a convenience when it works; but problems exist coping in the cases when it does not work.

TfL has not properly addressed the individual needs of commuters and has already paid the price by needing to heavily advertise the fact that commuters must swipe in and out. The ongoing concern for TfL should be to counter the hidden costs caused by misunderstanding and misuse of Oyster.

Associated Link: David N Clarke's website

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