Press Release
Mayor welcomes Oyster deal with Chiltern Railways
24 January 2007
This press release was originally issued by the press office of the Greater London Authority.
Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, today welcomed Chiltern Railways' acceptance of his offer to purchase and install Oyster equipment at all of its London stations, and urged other train operators to come on board.
The offer to train operating companies, worth £20m, will allow passengers to get the full benefits of Oyster pay as you go.
This follows the Mayor's recent announcement that the 10 millionth Oyster card has been issued.
The Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said: "This is good news and will bring real benefits to the commuters who use the Chiltern services.
"I welcome Chiltern's decision to adopt Oyster at their stations. This clearly shows that there is no justifiable reason why other train operating companies should not also adopt Oyster and accept my offer to pay them £20m to install Oyster equipment."
In May 2006, the Mayor offered a funding package of £20m to the train operators, which will finance the purchase and installation of the technology to accept the pay as you go system at every station in Zones 1-6.
The train operating companies have until 31 January to accept this deal.
With the introduction on the rail network of the familiar six zones already used for Underground and Travelcard tickets, London can move to a unified ticketing system based on the Oyster smart card.
Time savings
Transport for London (TfL) Commissioner Peter Hendy said: "This is yet another step toward to a fully integrated ticket system in London.
"Passengers will see a real benefit in being able to move easily between rail, Tube, Docklands Light Railway (DLR), tram and bus using an Oyster card."
Around three quarters of journeys on London's buses and Underground are now paid for by Oyster card compared to only five per cent by cash - bringing huge time savings to passengers and the transport system.
Almost three times as many passengers can pass an Underground payment gate using Oyster card as can using printed tickets - 40 a minute compared to 15 a minute.
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