EDS and Cubic cling on to Oyster contract

EDS and Cubic cling on to Oyster contract

Transport for London (TfL) has selected Cubic Transportation Systems and EDS to run the capital's pre-paid contactless travel card system in a deal that sees the Oyster brand retained.

Cubic and EDS are both part of the Transys consortium that has been running the system via a 17 year public finance initiative (PFI) contract since 1998.

In August TfL decided to ditch the Transys deal in 2010 by exercising a break option. The organisation has now selected Cubic and EDS to manage and develop the system from 2010 to 2013 in a move it hopes will save millions of pounds.

Shashi Verma, director, fares and ticketing, TfL, says: "This new deal will see Oyster in the pockets of Londoners for years to come and will save significant money that TfL will invest in improving transport in the capital."

Under the deal, the Oyster brand will also pass to TfL. In October TfL told the London Assembly the Oyster brand could be scrapped in 2010 and also suggested a new system that uses mobile phones or bank cards could be introduced.

In addition, the organisation says Oyster "will also be available if required for the 2012 Games".

Transys and the system it runs have come under scrutiny recently, with outages and the publication of a research paper outlining security flaws found in the Mifare chips used in the cards.

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