Baroness Randerson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2015-10-26.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made on the South East Flexible Ticketing Scheme, and whether there have been any delays to previously announced plans.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
A review of initial proposals to make smart tickets available across the south-east with a target date of end December 2015 has led to a refocused and enhanced programme with a wider geographic scope and an improved technological approach. As part of this, a new South East Flexible Ticketing (SEFT) central back office, providing critical IT infrastructure and data processing capability, has already undergone testing and, working with industry to establish how best to offer smart ticketing to passengers in the south-east, we have already reached agreement with 5train operators, serving 73% of all rail season ticket holders in the south-east. We are continuing to work with operators to ensure full coverage of services in offering foundations for smart ticketing.
In addition, though this scheme smart season tickets are already available to customers on Govia Thameslink Railway and c2c. South West Trains and Abellio Greater Anglia plan to introduce smart seasons on their services in January 2016; Southeastern will follow at the end of 2016. The programme is planned to complete in 2018.
