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63-454: The Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg ( VBB ) is a transport association run by public transport providers in the German states of Berlin and Brandenburg . It is a private limited company owned jointly by the states of Berlin and Brandenburg (with one third each) and the 18 counties and cities of Brandenburg with 1.85% each. It was founded on 30 December 1996. VBB claims to be one of

126-610: A RFID system and is compatible with ISO/IEC 14443 types A and B. Oyster readers can also read other types of cards including Cubic Transportation Systems' Go cards . From its inception until January 2010, Oyster cards were based on NXP / Philips ' MIFARE Classic 1k chips provided by Giesecke & Devrient , Gemalto and SchlumbergerSema . All new Oyster cards have used MIFARE DESFire EV1 chips since December 2009. From February 2010, MIFARE Classic-based Oyster cards were no longer issued. MIFARE DESFire cards are now widely used as transport smartcards. MIFARE Classic chips, on which

189-460: A "transit authority" but the type of agency is generally the same. A transit district is created to give it the power of the government in dealing with solving problems related to transit issues. This includes the powers of eminent domain to obtain space for rights-of-way (e.g. for railways or busways ), the ability to impose excise , income , property , and/or sales taxes to fund subsidies of operating costs of local transportation, and

252-430: A UK bank account, credit to another Oyster card, or a TfL web account voucher, and refunds of over £15 require the customer to provide proof of identity and address. Refunds of up to £10 in credit plus the deposit may alternatively be claimed at London Underground ticket machines, which will pay the refund in cash. Even though the £5 deposit is officially for the card itself, the ticket machine has no facility for relieving

315-423: A distance, there has been no evidence of anyone being able to decrypt Oyster information. By design the cards do not carry any personal information. Aluminium shielding has been suggested to prevent any personal data from being read. Oyster uses a distributed settlement framework. All transactions are settled between the card and reader alone. Readers transmit the transactions to the back office in batches but there

378-485: A journey, but this will prevent the card from being used (even if it is loaded with a valid Travelcard) until the card is topped up. In 2009, TfL introduced a new type of Oyster card validator, distinguished from the standard yellow validators by having a pink-coloured reader. They do not deduct funds, but are used at peripheral interchange points to confirm journey details. Oyster pay-as-you-go users travelling between two points without passing through Zone 1 are eligible for

441-458: A lower fare, and from 6 September 2009 can confirm their route by touching their Oyster cards on the pink validators when they change trains, allowing them to be charged the appropriate fare without paying for Zone 1 travel. The pink validators are located at 16 interchange stations. An example journey would be Watford Junction to Richmond, which as of October 2024 costs £12.50 peak and £9.00 off-peak when travelling via Zone 1. If travelling on

504-539: A number of different outlets in the London area: As well as the £7 fee for the card, a minimum purchase of £5 credit or a week Travelcard or Bus & Tram Pass is necessary at point of issue. Visitor Oyster cards can be obtained from Visit Britain outlets around the world, and from other transport operators, such as EasyJet and Gatwick Express , and online and from any ticket office. However, these limited-functionality cards cannot be registered. Any remaining credit on

567-403: A registered credit or debit card. Online purchases can be collected at any Oyster touch point (including buses, but not including ticket machines) 30 minutes after purchase; the previous requirement to nominate a station at which to collect the top-up and wait until the next day has been removed. The touch will start (or, as applicable, end) a journey in the normal way, and may result in a charge to

630-462: A route outside Zone 1 via Willesden Junction , the fares are £4.80 and £2.20 respectively, which can be charged correctly if the Oyster card is validated at the pink validator when changing trains at Willesden Junction. Oyster card pay-as-you-go users must "touch in" at the start of a journey by London Underground or DLR, and "touch out" again at the end. The Oyster card readers automatically calculate

693-557: A season ticket, the user only pays at the point of use. The use of Oyster pay as you go (PAYG) payment has now been implemented across National Rail services in the London Travelcard area (Zones 1–9), some additional stations served by c2c , Elizabeth line (not West Drayton to Reading), Govia Thameslink Railway , Greater Anglia , and London Overground , Southeastern highspeed services within London, as well as Gatwick Express and Heathrow Express . In May 2006 TfL and

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756-554: A separate National Rail ticket, the Oyster card must be touched in/out at the interchange station as appropriate. Oyster cards can be used to store season tickets of both travelcards and bus passes (of one week or more), and a Pay-as-you-go balance. An Oyster card can hold up to three season tickets at the same time. Season tickets are Bus & Tram Passes or Travelcards lasting 7 days, 1 month, or any duration up to one year (annual). Travelcards are valid on all Underground, Overground, DLR, bus, tram and national rail services within

819-415: A valid ticket. Some tube stations (such as those at National Rail interchanges) and DLR stations have standalone validators with no barriers. In both instances, pay-as-you-go users are required to touch in and out. London Overground services are operated by Arriva on behalf of TfL and Oyster pay-as-you-go users use their cards in the same way as on Underground journeys, touching their card on a card reader at

882-757: Is a blue credit-card-sized stored-value contactless smart card. It is promoted by Transport for London (TfL) and can be used on as part of London's integrated transport network on travel modes including London Buses , London Underground , the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), London Overground , Tramlink , some river boat services , and most National Rail services within the London fare zones. Since its introduction in June 2003, more than 86 million cards have been used. Oyster cards can hold period tickets, travel permits and, most commonly, credit for travel ("Pay as you go"), which must be added to

945-399: Is calculated). From 22 May 2011, Oyster Extension Permits (OEPs) were no longer required. Before that date, users who travelled outside the zones of their Travelcard, and whose journey involved the use of a National Rail service, were required to set an OEP on their Oyster card before travelling, to ensure that they paid for the extra-zonal journey. Oyster card Travelcards can be renewed at

1008-428: Is designed to reduce the number of transactions at ticket offices and the number of paper tickets. On London buses, cash is no longer accepted. The card was first issued to the public on 30 June 2003, with a limited range of features; further functions were rolled out over time. By June 2012, over 43 million Oyster cards had been issued and more than 80% of all journeys on public transport in London were made using

1071-486: Is most often organised on the county level, but in the sparsely populated north, some municipalities opt to run a city bus network separated from the county network. Some counties opt to run joint commuter train networks In the north, this is also done with coaches which run on lines, sometimes hundreds of kilometres long. Transport for London , which operates the London Underground , London Overground and

1134-541: Is mostly of the domain of local government , with some coordination by the provinces. Most Canadian cities have a transit authority. Île-de-France Mobilités supervises transport in the Île de France region. As part of the big deregulation package passed by the Bundestag in 1993, which mainly merged the two state railways of West and East Germany into one single company governed by private law instead of public law, regional transport and transit had been assigned to

1197-453: Is no need for this to be done in real time. The back office acts mainly as a record of transactions that have been completed between cards and readers. This provides a high degree of resilience. In 2008, a fashion caught on for removing the RFID chip from Oyster cards and attaching it to wrist watches and bracelets. This allowed commuters to pass through the gates by "swiping" their hand without

1260-471: The Bundesländer (federal states) , who had each to pass their own individual law regulating public transit, whereby "regional" was defined as journeys "typically not over distances more than 50 km (30 mi), and not taking longer than one hour". Providing public transit is the joint responsibility of the local county and municipal governments per The Public Transportation Act (2010:1065). Transit

1323-633: The DLR , an extensive bus network , tram services , riverboat services , the Public Carriage Office (responsible for black cabs ), London Dial-a-Ride , streets in London , the London congestion charge and a limited coach service . The Oyster card electronic ticketing scheme is also operated by Transport for London, and can be used on the underground, overground, buses, trams and the DLR. In

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1386-654: The Department for Transport agreed a £20 million funding package for train operators to install the equipment necessary to accept PAYG at all London stations. The package was not taken up by any train operating companies and in September 2006, the South West Trains franchise was renewed by the Department for Transport with the condition that smartcard ticketing must be in place by 2009. In November 2007

1449-419: The 'one more journey' feature, customers receive an emergency fare advice slip to acknowledge that the Oyster 'One More Journey' feature has been used and to remind them that their card needs to be topped up before another journey can be made. It is estimated that by eliminating cash from buses, TfL will save £103m by the year 2023, which will be reinvested into the capital. Some London bus routes cross outside

1512-636: The Greater London boundary before reaching their terminus. Pay-as-you-go users are permitted to travel the full length of these route on buses operated as part of the London Bus network, even to destinations some distance outside Greater London. London's trams operate on the same fare structure as buses; the rules are similar, and users with pre-pay must touch the Oyster card only once at the point of boarding. Transfers between trams and buses are free within 62 minutes (publicly stated as "one hour") of

1575-410: The Oyster brand originally belonged to TranSys. Following the renegotiation of the operating contract in 2008, TfL sought to retain the right to use the Oyster brand after the termination of its partnership with Transys, eventually acquiring the rights to the brand in 2010 at a cost of £1 million. The Oyster card has a claimed proximity range of about 80 mm (3.1 inches). The card operates as

1638-573: The TfL website, or with staff assistance at London Underground ticket machines. Unregistered cards can only be loaded with credit to use at adult pay as you go rates, and adult 7 day Travelcards. Ticket vending machines on most National Rail stations will top-up Oyster cards and sell tickets that can be loaded on to Oyster. New Oyster cards are not available at most National Rail stations. At several main line termini, TfL runs Travel Information Centres, which do sell Oyster. Touch-screen ticket machines report

1701-484: The United States, a transit district is a special-purpose district organized either as a corporation chartered by statute or as a government agency. A district is usually contained within one state, but in rare circumstances may cover two or more states. The term used depends on which part of the country the agency is created in. Typically, western states will create a "transit district" and eastern states create

1764-567: The VBB area. The number of lines, as of 2005, is as follows: The Berlin S-Bahn network amounted for 32.43 million train kilometres in 2005. Regional trains accumulated a total amount of 38.07 million train kilometres. The percentage of rail passengers transported per company is Transport association A transit district may operate bus , rail or other types of transport including ferry service, or may operate other facilities. In some cases,

1827-496: The ability to operate independently of the cities and counties that the transit district operates within. A transit district may also have its own transit police force, although in some areas the local police provide a special bureau for this purpose. Some of the more famous transit districts in the U.S. include: Oyster card The Oyster card is a payment method for public transport in London (and some areas around it), England, United Kingdom . A standard Oyster card

1890-440: The back office systems was started by Fujitsu and completed by Cubic. The system has the capability to interface with equipment or services provided by other suppliers. The Oyster website is not part of the closed system but interfaces with it. Similarly, Oyster readers are now embedded into ticket machines produced by Shere and Scheidt and Bachmann on the national rail network. In early 2007, TfL and Deloitte worked to migrate

1953-405: The card before travel. Passengers touch it on an electronic reader when entering, and in some cases when leaving, the transport system in order to validate it, and where relevant, deduct funds from the stored credit. Cards may be "topped-up" by continuous payment authority , by online purchase , at credit card terminals or by cash , the last two methods at stations or convenience stores. The card

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2016-479: The card has been used for a journey. It can also be commenced at a London Underground station, an Oyster Ticket Stop (shop) or a Travel Information Centre; for this, the customer has to supply a security password and their postcode, which must then be cited when completing the registration online. Registration enables the customer to buy any product for the card and to have an after-sales service, and it protects against theft or loss. Oyster cards can be purchased from

2079-454: The card is refundable upon return of the card; the £5 price of the card is not refunded. Oyster cards were initially free, but a refundable deposit of £3 was subsequently introduced, increased to £5 for a refundable Oyster card in January 2011,. Any deposit and unused credit are refundable by posting the card to TfL; however, refunds are paid only by pounds sterling cheque, bank transfer to

2142-465: The card. From September 2007 to 2010, the Oyster card functionality was tried as an experiment on Barclaycard contactless bank cards. Since 2014, the use of Oyster cards has been supplemented by contactless credit and debit cards as part of TfL's "Future Ticketing Programme". TfL was one of the first public transport providers in the world to accept payment by contactless bank cards, after, in Europe,

2205-401: The card. In addition to holding Travelcards and bus passes, Oyster cards can also be used as stored-value cards , holding electronic funds of money. Amounts are deducted from the card each time it is used, and the funds can be "recharged" when required. The maximum value that an Oyster card may hold is £90. This system is known as "pay as you go" (abbreviated PAYG), because instead of holding

2268-539: The card. In May 2009 London TravelWatch indicated it had discovered that the works were unlikely to be completed until 2010. On 23 November 2009 the GLA announced that from 2 January 2010 the vast majority of rail services in Greater London would accept Oyster PAYG. When Oyster cards were introduced, the PAYG system was initially named "pre pay", and this name is still sometimes used by National Rail . TfL officially refers to

2331-491: The cards, calculate whether to allow travel, assess any fare payable and write back information to the card. Some basic information about the MIFARE Classic or MIFARE DESFire chip can be read by any ISO/IEC 14443 type A compatible reader, but Oyster-specific information cannot be read without access to the encryption used for the Oyster system. While it has been suggested that a good reader could read personal details from

2394-439: The correct fare based on the start and end points of the journey and deduct that fare from the Oyster card. Pay-as-you-go funds are also used to cover any additional fares due from season ticket holders who have travelled outside the valid zones of their season ticket (see Travelcards above). Passengers enter or exit most London Underground stations through ticket barriers which are operated by scanning an Oyster card or inserting

2457-401: The customer of the card who departs the transaction still in possession of a (now useless) Oyster card. On cards issued since February 2020, the £5 deposit became a card fee and will be repaid as credit to the card on the first transaction made more than a year after issue. From September 2022, the card issue fee went up to £7 and this is no longer refundable. Oyster cards can be registered via

2520-440: The entry and exit points of their journey to calculate the fare due. Users must touch the Oyster card only once at the point of boarding: as London buses have a flat fare of £1.75 (which allows for unlimited bus and tram journeys started within 62 minutes from the point of touching in ), there is no need to calculate an end point of the journey. From July 2016, cash was no longer accepted on London Buses, with TfL heavily promoting

2583-457: The first smartcard was tested by London Transport on bus route 212 from Chingford to Walthamstow in 1992. The trial showed that the technology was possible and that it would reduce boarding times. In February 1994, the "Smartcard" or "Smart Photocard" was launched and trialled in Harrow on 21 routes. Advertised as "the new passport to Harrow’s buses", the trial was the largest of its kind in

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2646-451: The funding package offer. c2c and Chiltern Railways accepted the deal and on 31 January 2007, a commitment was made by ATOC , in principle, that all other operators would eventually accept the PAYG product. According to ATOC, roll-out plans were subject to the installation of suitable ticket gates and back office equipment at all 330 stations. It was expected that by February 2009 TfL would announce plans for all suburban trains to accept

2709-403: The history for the previous 8 weeks, but no further back. Oyster online also displays up to 8 weeks of journey history. Travellers touch the card on a distinctive yellow circular reader (a Tri-Reader, developed by Cubic Transportation Systems) on the automated barriers at London Underground stations to touch in and touch out at the start and end of a journey. Physical contact is not necessary, but

2772-743: The largest transport associations in Europe based on the area covered of 30,367 km with nearly 6 million inhabitants. Common ticketing was launched on 1 April 1999. The 2005 number of passengers transported was 1.23 billion, with 3.37 million passengers per day. Many lines are operated under the VBB fare structure. This includes all local traffic in Berlin , such as the Berlin S-Bahn and Berlin U-Bahn , as well as all regional train services, most of them RegionalExpress and RegionalBahn lines. There are also several trolleybus and ferry lines within

2835-466: The last eight journeys and last top-up amount. The balance is displayed on some Underground barriers at the end of journeys that have caused a debit from the balance, and can also be requested at newsagents and National Rail stations that provide a top-up facility. Oyster Online service can also deliver regular Travel Statements via email. A complete 8-week 'touch' history can be requested from TfL: for registered and protected Oyster cards, TfL can provide

2898-549: The metro routes operated by Silverlink were brought under the control of TfL and operated under the brand name London Overground , accepting Oyster PAYG. A necessary precursor of the acceptance of Oyster PAYG was the introduction of zonal single fares on the National Rail network in London; this was implemented in January 2007. Also in January, the then Mayor of London Ken Livingstone announced that he required operators to sign up by 31 January 2007 in order to receive

2961-487: The need to take out a proper card. Although the RFID chips were charged in the normal way and no fare evasion was involved, TfL disapproved of the practice and threatened to fine anyone not carrying a full undamaged card, although it is not clear what the actual offence would be, were a case to be brought. The Oyster system is based on a closed, proprietary architecture from Cubic Transportation Systems. The card readers were developed entirely by Cubic, whereas development of

3024-460: The normal sales points and ticket machines at London Underground or London Overground stations, Oyster Ticket Stop agents, or some National Rail stations. Travelcards can also be renewed online via the Oystercard website, or by telephone sales from TfL. Alternatively a user can choose to automatically add either £20 or £40 every time the balance on the card falls below £20, with payment charged to

3087-443: The on-line payment systems to a more open architecture , using a number of open source components such as Linux , to resolve issues of lock-in costs, updates, incorporation of new security standards of PCI DSS , non-scalability, low and inconsistent quality of service, and slower response time to business changes. Oyster cards can be registered, providing protection in case of loss or theft. Registration can be done online after

3150-456: The original Oyster card was based, are hard-wired logic smartcards, meaning that they have limited computing power designed for a specific task. The MIFARE DESFire chips used on the new Oyster card are CPUs with much more sophisticated security features and more complex computation power. They are activated only when they are in an electromagnetic field compatible with ISO/IEC 14443 type A, provided by Oyster readers. The readers read information from

3213-439: The original consortium shareholders to run the system from 2010 until 2013. The Oyster name was agreed on after a lengthy period of research managed by TranSys and agreed by TfL. Two other names were considered and "Oyster" was chosen as a fresh approach that was not directly linked to transport, ticketing or London. Other proposed names were "Pulse" and "Gem". According to Andrew McCrum, now of Appella brand name consultants, who

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3276-415: The range of the reader is only a few millimetres. Tram stops have readers on the platforms, and buses also have readers on the driver/conductor's ticket machine, and on these modes passengers must touch their card to the reader at the start of their journey only, with the exception of tram journeys to Wimbledon station , where trams arrive within the ticket-gates and as such a touch-out is necessary to leave

3339-419: The station. At stations without barriers, such as most Docklands Light Railway stations, passengers must touch their card on a reader at both the beginning and end of their journey if they wish to avoid being charged the maximum fare for an unresolved journey. Such a step is not needed if transferring between trains within a station when using the same card for the full journey, but if changing between Oyster and

3402-446: The system as "pay as you go" in all publicity. The validity of PAYG has a more complex history as it has only been gradually accepted by transport operators independent of TfL. Additionally, the use of PAYG differs across the various modes of transport in London, and passengers are sometimes required to follow different procedures to pay for their journey correctly. It is possible to have a negative pay-as-you-go balance after completing

3465-454: The tramways and bus of Nice on 21 May 2010 either with NFC bank card or smartphone , and the widespread adoption of contactless in London has been credited to this. TfL is now one of Europe's largest contactless merchants, with around 1 in 10 contactless transactions in the UK taking place on the TfL network in 2016. Early electronic smartcard ticket technology was developed in the 1980s, and

3528-453: The transit district may be part of a larger organization such as a state Department of Transportation. With seven transport associations responsible for the nine federal states of Austria, it is the only country in the world that has transport associations for each federal state except for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland which are organised in one association (Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region). In Canada, transit (or transport or transportation)

3591-418: The use of a contactless card or Oyster card. All major contactless cards are accepted which carry the 'contactless symbol'. As London buses do not accept cash payments, TfL introduced a "one more journey" incentive on Oyster cards. This meant that customers are able to take a bus if their cards have £0 or more. Doing so may result in a negative balance, but the card can be topped up at a later date. When using

3654-639: The world to roll out this sort of technology, at the end of 1995, eight years before London did as the "Oyster card". In the UK, the first smartcard publicly rolled out was the BusCard in the city of Nottingham in 2000. The Oyster card was set up under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract between Transport for London (TfL) and TranSys , a consortium of suppliers that included EDS and Cubic Transportation Systems (responsible for day-to-day management) and Fujitsu and WS Atkins (shareholders with no active involvement). The £100 million contract

3717-574: The world, costing £2 million and resulting in almost 18,000 photocards issued to the Harrow public. It lasted until December 1995 and was a success, proving that it reduces boarding times, is easy to use, and is able to record entry and exit stops and calculate the corresponding fare fee, i.e. pay as you go . However, the Upass smartcard of the South Korean capital Seoul was eventually the first in

3780-519: The zones for which their Travelcard is valid. As long as the Travelcard holder stays within their permitted zones no fare will be deducted from the pay-as-you-go funds on the card. The Oyster system checks that the Travelcard is valid in the zones it is being used in. If users travel outside the valid zones of their Travelcard (but within Oyster payment zones), any remaining fare due may be deducted from their pay-as-you-go funds (see below for how this

3843-467: The zones purchased. See the main article for a fuller explanation of Travelcards . Tube, DLR and London Overground Travelcards may be used on buses in all zones. Trams may also be used if the travelcard includes Zones 3, 4, 5 or 6. Although TfL asks all Oyster users to tap their card at entry/exit points of their journey, in practice Travelcard holders only need to "touch in" and "touch out" to operate ticket barriers or because they intend to travel outside

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3906-452: Was brought in to find a name by Saatchi and Saatchi Design (contracted by TranSys), "Oyster was conceived ... because of the metaphorical implications of security and value in the hard bivalve shell and the concealed pearl. Its associations with London through Thames estuary oyster beds and the major relevance of the popular idiom " the world is your oyster " were also significant factors in its selection". The intellectual property rights to

3969-439: Was signed in 1998 for a term of 17 years until 2015 at a total cost of £1.1 billion. In August 2008, TfL decided to exercise a break option in the contract to terminate it in 2010, five years early. This followed a number of technical failures. TfL stated that the contractual break was to reduce costs, not connected to the system failures. In November 2008 a new contract was announced between TfL and Cubic and EDS for two of

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