PRE-PAY OYSTERCARD HOLDERS OVERCHARGED BY OVER £1MILLION

12.01.00am GMT Fri 11th Mar 2005

New figures revealed today by the London Assembly Liberal Democrats show that Pre-pay Oystercard customers could have been overcharged £1million before capping was introduced last month.

The research uses a report by Ken Livingstone that shows that since 'capping' was introduced to Pre-Pay Oystercard, £7,000 was saved in a single day. With Pre-Pay having started on the 16th May 2004, and taking a mean of £3,500 per day, Transport for London could have received £1million extra in fares from customers who were unnecessarily charged more for their journey than they should have been.

Transport for London had the ability from the start to cap fares but decided to hold back on implementing the technology until they were confident that peak/off peak pricing and the new 2005 fares were well understood.

London Assembly Transport Spokesperson, Lynne Featherstone, said:-

"The Oystercard idea is a welcome addition to improving the way London transport network operates and should provide greater convenience for passengers.

"However, Transport for London and the Mayor waiting until now to start making sure people wouldn't be overcharged will leave a bitter taste in the mouth of those who heeded the advertising and switched to Pre-Pay before all the promised benefits were working.

"The way the Mayor has decided to introduce the Oystercard in fits and starts has made it far less useful than it should be. As it is impossible to refund overcharged customers, Transport for London must now publicly account for where the extra cash has gone and what extra improvements commuters should expect to see thanks to this windfall."

ENDS

Notes to editor

· According to the Mayor's Report published on 3rd March 2005:-

"Oystercard Pre Pay

TfL successfully launched daily price capping on Sunday 27 February. The price capping software is performing flawlessly and on Tuesday 2 March, which is the most recent day for which data is currently available, over 6,000 customers saved more than £7,000."

· With 285 working days since the introduction of Pre-Pay, and assuming that £3,500 was overcharged for each of those days (a mean over the period), Transport for London would have received an extra £997,500.

· Since its introduction on the 16th May 2004, the smartcard technology has the capacity to "cap" the fare that is deducted from your card at the lowest fare available for that journey. It was however deliberate TfL policy to delay "capping" until the public is used to the current operation. According to the Mayor in November 2004:-

"TfL has needed to establish customer confidence in the new product -"Pre Pay", and familiarise customers with the importance of touching in and touching out even at ungated stations. The favourable experience with the launch of smart cards in 2002 and the introduction of Pre Pay in 2003 supports a strategy of introducing features sequentially and deliberately. This has enabled TfL to avoid the pitfalls of smart card launches around the world and the disappointments of other IT PFI's here in the UK. Once customers are thoroughly familiar with the fare revision being implemented in January 2005 and TfL verify that the capping logic works as intended with the new fare tables, TfL will begin to familiarise staff and customers with what fare capping means and how it will work."