MPTE Walrus Smart Card

[CX54 DKD (Moderator)]

RE: MPTE Walrus Smart Card
Paper tickets are easily lost or damaged, easily misused (see posts by other members earlier on in the thread), become more expensive to continue to produce once smart card infrastructure is in place and working and are not as easily available or updatable for the end-user. Yes, a smart card may require some initial paperwork but then so did the old Solos etc.

A smart card system allows the user to (potentially, I'm not sure whether or not Walrus is introducing this at this stage) top up online at their convenience, top up wherever is convenient for them as opposed to having to visit a travel shop, pay with a card and less easily loose or damage their card. It also has low distribution costs after initial introduction and offers better revenue protection by requiring electronic validation.

My quoted paragraph is trying to provide some reasoning as to why using an outdated system is a poor choice over investing in a newer/bespoke solution, not promoting the use of paper tickets. It also focuses heavily on the cost of that which is why I suspect it gives you the implication it has. Bear it mind that any sort of new system, whether digital or not, has cost implication from design to final production & distribution.

I agree that a national solution may well have been better but we are where we are and we have to work from there - a national initiative is unlikely with TfL looking to reinvest in Oyster, Merseytravel ploughing money into Walrus alongside every other PTE's initiatives. I'd be inclined to disagree that introducing the new systems overcomplicate anything and as I mentioned in my previous post, I find it much easier just to tap my smart card on a reader at each end of my journey on the Tyne & Wear Metro than having to queue for a paper ticket. It's also much quicker of a morning peak to be able to do so as the queue for paper tickets can be horrendous. So for Merseytravel to be introducing a similar system, is a definite step in the right direction to me and I'm confident to users of their network once things settle down.