Friday 24 June 2011

No "Oyster" for West Midlands....yet!

Sad to hear, although not particularly surprised, that the West Midlands Smartcard project has been delayed.
The plan - to deliver London-style "Oyster" Smartcards - is being reported in the local press this morning as being delayed due to software issues.
I'm not completely surprised at this. The smartcard readers - currently in use to read concessionary passes - are quite often observed by me and others as not working.
I always suspected the plan to get this up and running for all users by this summer was optimistic, but of course the media has put a negative slant on this.
We've waited all these years for a system that I truly believe will see a step-change in the way we use our buses. I'm looking forward to it immensely, so let's stop being negative, give it a bit more time and look forward to the not too distant future where bus travel in the Centro area will become even easier and user-friendly.

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