Transport for London – Jubilee Project
What was the issue?
Tube travellers were being charged a small fortune for not touching out with their Oyster pay-as-you-go cards at the end of a journey, resulting in being charged a maximum fare penalty of £7.40. Storm Consulting were set the challenge of developing a new system providing an alternative to charging the maximum Zone 1-6 fare penalty.
What benefits were delivered?
The development of a new system that avoided charging the maximum penalty to Oyster card users who were forgetting to swipe their cards. Built on an existing engine, the new system was rolled out efficiently without compromising existing software.
Under the new system the cost of the ‘most likely’ journey will be debited from Oyster accounts on the Tube, Docklands Light Railway, Overground or National Rail.
How were they delivered?
Russ Lewis, Senior Software Architect designed a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) which enabled TFL to build systems upon each other, without compromising the existing systems, or having to overcome costly and inconvenient integration issues. But since the architecture was service-oriented, the functionality of each has been re-used, helping to boost TFL’s IT efficiency. Indeed the Fares and Ticketing department has proved to be one of the most successful parts of the business, taking over other departments to become Customer Experience.
What were the results?
For the business
When Mayor of London, Boris Johnson announced that, Shashi Verma, TFL’s director of fares and ticketing, was able to promise him that he would be able to deliver a system to fill that gap, he knew that the hard work had already been done by re-using the existing engine and benefiting from the technology which Storm had created.
For the people
Oyster card users would no longer be charged the maximum fare penalty when they forgot to swipe their cards. They would only be charged for the journey they had made.
What TFL had to say:
Transport for London
We couldn’t have done any of what we’re up to without you.
