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The agency that runs the contactless Oyster fare-collection system for London-area mass transit in the United Kingdom has selected new vendors to run the system. The deal also gives the agency, Transport for London, ownership of the Oyster brand. The new deal, with Cubic Transportation Systems Ltd. and EDS , both based in the United States, runs for three years, a Transport for London spokesperson tells CardLine Global. Under the previous deal, vendor consortium TranSys had owned the Oyster brand under a management contract set to expire in 2010, five year earlier than expected. In August, Transport for London said it would exercise its option to cancel the TranSys contract early (CardLine Global, 12 Aug.). The agency said it hoped to save money by canceling the contract, worth 100 million UK pounds per year (US$150.4 million or 119.4 million euros). "We can confirm that the new contract will offer significant savings over the course of its three-year life," a Transport for London official said Wednesday while declining to offer more details. More than 17 million Oyster cards have been issued since the scheme launched in 2003, Transport for London says. Of those, at least 6 million remain in "regular use," the spokesperson says. Transport for London officials earlier this year said they hope to enable more transit payments by mobile phones or general-issue bankcards carrying Visa or MasterCard contactless applications (CardLine Global, 23 Oct.).
