TranSys hands over control of Oyster travel cards

Transaction Systems' (TranSys) role in maintaining the Oyster card system for Transport for London (TfL) has come to an end.

The last remaining member of the consortium Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) now takes over full responsibility for its running and future development.

Cost cutting by TfL and a stormy period of service problems in 2008 resulted in the renegotiation of the contract. One of the worst failures resulted in Oyster card users enjoying a day of free travel.

Even the renegotiation did not run smoothly as the other remaining member of the originally four-strong TranSys consortium EDS, now part of HP, failed in an attempt to prevent CTS from taking sole responsibility.

John Stout, TranSys' chief executive, said: "The Prestige Project including the design and implementation of the Oyster smartcard has been an outstanding success. TranSys is very proud to have been involved in this high profile project for the last twelve years."

TranSys will retain advertising rights on ticket gatelines and ticketing media until March 2015.

The Oyster smartcard brand was created in 2003 and was owned by TranSys until earlier this year when it passed to TfL. There are now over seven million cards in regular use and 57 million journeys are made using Oyster every week.

The original consortium comprised Electronic Data Systems (EDS), Cubic Transportation Systems, Fujitsu Services and WS Atkins.