Transport for London buys Oyster brand name, plans extra services and move to mobile ticketing

“Oyster has the potential to be used for so much more than simply getting around the capital, and the technology is there to make it even more convenient for Londoners to use by integrating it into mobile phones or bank cards,” says the Mayor of London’s transport advisor.

OWN BRAND: Transport for London is now free to take Oyster in new directions

Transport for London (TfL) has paid £1m to secure ownership and control of the Oyster brand and of London’s transport ticketing system.

“Oyster is the world’s most successful transport smartcard,” says Shashi Verma, TfL’s director of fares and ticketing. “Now that the Oyster brand and ticketing equipment is under TfL’s ownership we can further investigate the potential for Oyster to be extended to new and existing technologies and the commercial opportunities that provides.”

“Oyster has the potential to be used for so much more than simply getting around the capital, and the technology is there to make it even more convenient for Londoners to use by integrating it into mobile phones or bank cards,” explains Kulveer Ranger, the Mayor of London’s transport advisor. “Buying full rights to the Oyster brand means TfL now has total control over the future of Oyster.”

TfL has also announced that it has made an early repayment of its debt to the TranSys Consortium which built the Oyster system, meaning that “all ticketing system assets such as Oyster readers and validators, ticket gatelines, all London Underground retailing devices including ticket office and passenger operated machines, London Buses ticketing equipment and back office systems have now transferred to public control and the ownership of Transport for London.”

There are currently more than seven million Oyster cards in regular use and around 80% of all journeys made each day on the bus, Tube, DLR and London Overground services are paid for via Oyster. In January this year, Oyster was expanded to include all 350 National Rail stations in London and the first of a new generation of ticketing barriers able to accept payments via contactless cards and NFC phones are due to be installed in 2011.

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