Regional transport authorities would simplify ticketing jumble

The brilliant feature article by Beate Kubitz on paying for public transport without using cash gave me considerable food for thought (‘Cash is no longer king when paying for the ticket to ride’ LTT 22 Jun). I will concentrate on two broad points.

Though not directly mentioned by Kubitz, there is a growing trend for British public transport operators to say ‘Smartcards are a thing of the past; we will concentrate our efforts on account-based Smartphone Apps.’ This attitude should be resisted for two reasons.

Firstly, it effectively requires all passengers to have both a smartphone and a normal current bank account.  A large sector of the population – in particular children – are thus excluded. Secondly, it ignores adults (like me) who prefer the simplicity of a smartcard over the complexities of paying by app. Note particularly the problem of the passenger outside London who has to load onto his/her smartphone a large number of public transport apps – one for each operator they are likely to use. Contrast that with the simplicity of just one smartcard covering all operators.

This leads to my second broad point. Kubitz tells us that “[In London] a total of less than 2 per cent of fares is spent on ticketing infrastructure, back office architecture and processing costs. These figures are in marked contrast to operators outside London who admit to paying upwards of 5 per cent in payment costs on their contactless and app-based transactions...”

The low processing costs in London are achieved because all revenue from local public transport (however it is collected) goes to the regional transport authority – Transport for London. 

If – as I have consistently advocated – the London-style system of organising public transport by a regional transport authority was extended to the whole country, the costs of handling non-cash fare payments would come tumbling down. Moreover, things would be a lot simpler for passengers. Instead of a multitude of smartcards and/or apps, they would normally need just one smartcard or one app – the one appropriate for the region in which they live.