The lack of innovation is killing London’s Oyster card
Despite commitment to make improvements, the transport authority is slowly ruining the contactless travelcard in the hope that people will abandon and switch on their own.
Launched in 2003, Oyster card without a doubt spearheads digital payment in Europe, allowing commuters in London to pay for tube and bus fare with just a tap on the reader.
Fast forward two decades later, it appears TfL, operator of the contactless system, has subtly made it more inconvenient and frustrating to use.
Of course everything has a limited lifespan and Oyster is no exception, but no matter how much TfL encourages the public to use bank cards, it is still not a complete substitute it has hoped for.
The most compelling argument against a full network-wide adoption of contactless payment is Railcard discount. Currently, anyone who has 16–25 Railcard, 26–30 Railcard, Senior Railcard or HM Forces Railcard can apply 33% off on off-peak, pay-as-you-go travels. Some passengers also benefit from photocard discount or even free travel.
The discount is particularly useful to encourage young people to go outside and explore London, especially when most of them are likely to be students relying on parents for allowance.
Some people also use Oyster card for easier budget management. They can be certain expenditure out of bank card is not related to commute travels so they can have a clear mind on what cost to cut when it is time to save a bit more for larger spending in the future.
I have to admit it is often more convenient for me to just tap my phone on the reader instead of fumbling with my wallet in search of the Oyster card in front of the ticket barrier. There are a few occasions I pulled out my Chase debit card instead as they both are in blue colour.
But I find myself more familiar with the motion of taking a transit card out of my purse since I grew up using Octopus card in Hong Kong in the same fashion anyway, though a stark contrast being separate touch-in area for bank card and Octopus card.
Speaking of which, it is now possible to ditch the physical form of Octopus card on all mobile operating systems as the company in April finally launched the digitalisation on Android, provided the phone is compatible with Near Field Communication (NFC). It has long been possible on Apple’s iPhones, as well as mobile devices by Samsung and Huawei.
I think it is perhaps the best of both worlds since it does not straight out eliminate Octopus card when a lot of people still use it to unlock the front door of the building they live in and tie it to different membership schemes provided by supermarkets and merchants.
And Hong Kong is not the only place where transit cards are virtualised. Google Wallet and Apple Pay have supported digital Suica and PASMO for a long time. Mobile ICOCA has also been added in iOS since this summer.
Meanwhile, PRESTO in Toronto and Clipper in San Francisco are some of the most renowned examples of digitalisation in North America.
The technology is already there for TfL to adopt. I suspect the operator simply lacks the willingness to improve its IT system, prone to cyberattacks and breakdowns.
Instead, it serves as a reminder for the operator to keep improving and never leave Oyster card in its current shitshow, or else it can cost the company tens of billions to fix a growing list of issues and problem in the future.
