Smart ticketing

The Government-led flexible ticketing programme has run millions of pounds over budget, has been delayed several times and has failed to deliver, according to an investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO).

The NAO’s investigation into the Department for Transport’s South East Flexible Ticketing (SEFT) programme found that it had been paused three times and reset twice, reducing the scope each time. Despite £54 million being spent on it, exceeding the original budget by £9m, few passengers are using it.

In 2011, the DfT decided it needed to accelerate the use of smartcards because train operating companies were slow to develop their own schemes. The following year it created SEFT to improve the experience for passengers and cut costs for operators.

Eleven train operators running services into London were expected to offer flexible smart tickets, including discounted part-time season tickets. Currently only five of the 11 operators offer season tickets on smartcards, and only one (c2c) offers the part-time season tickets originally promised.

Of those five, Govia Thameslink Railway and South West Trains have developed their own “back office” processing for smartcards, so do not rely on the Government-funded system. The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) estimated that only 5% of the SEFT back-office capacity is currently being used.

The business case depended on 95% of season ticket holders switching to smartcards, but in the year to March 2017, only 8% of South East passengers used them. The DfT blamed early problems with passenger experience and a lack of marketing.

In total the Government has spent at least £120m to achieve the current low level of smart ticketing. In addition to the £54m SEFT programme, it handed £66m to Transport for London to upgrade its ticket gates to read train operators’ smartcards.

Plans to enable rail passengers to pay for travel using contactless credit and debit cards, as widely used on Transport for London services, were abandoned in 2014 following significant cost increases.

This month the DfT closed the SEFT programme, transferring management of the technology and assets to the RDG. This followed a ministerial decision that the industry, not the Government, should take the lead in smartcards and other ticketing innovation.

A DfT spokesman said: “This was an ambitious programme to lay the foundations for smart ticketing for rail passengers across the country. It introduced smartcard season tickets on five train operators, upgraded over 450 stations and created a hub for smart ticketing. Smart ticketing remains a priority for the Government.”

Lianna Etkind, Public Transport Campaigner at Campaign for Better Transport, said: “Delivering smart ticketing was a 2015 manifesto commitment. Passengers will be incensed that the Government has comprehensively failed to deliver on this, despite squandering tens of millions of taxpayers’ money.

“The Oyster card has been working well in London for over a decade, and has helped millions to save money and to travel more easily across buses, train and Tube. Without Government leadership, the UK risks falling behind the rest of the world on smart ticketing.

“The next Government must learn from this and deliver smart ticketing that will allow for seamless travel across all modes and operators with flexibility for part-time workers, not just in the South East but across the whole country.”