I'm not clear about what is intended to happen with existing cards, but there are basically two options - replace them, or have the new kit recognise them as a dumb card and process in the back office anyway, ignoring what's actually on the card.
Will this allow them to upgrade the system to expand the oyster area to match contactless , or will they still be limited by old oyster cards still in circulation?
One option - if Oyster is treated as a dumb card, and all payments are calculated back of house (which I believe TfL is planning on doing to exceed the current 4-bit system constraint, based on comments made somewhere on this forum), then surely Oyster validity could be expanded to the contactless validity area, and use it for railcard discounts only, saving the need to develop integration with bank cards?
Why does that matter? The discount would be applied when the payment is taken, overnight, and would only happen if there was a valid registered Railcard in the same name. If the DfT has been logical they would have insisted that the system being rolled out could talk directly to the Railcard back office system
That's what I was thinking - overnight, take all journeys done on the previous day, calculate the full fare in the same way for everyone, then apply the relevant railcard discount (if applicable) that is linked to the Oyster card/bank card/account to the final total.
I'm not clear about what is intended to happen with existing cards, but there are basically two options - replace them, or have the new kit recognise them as a dumb card and process in the back office anyway, ignoring what's actually on the card.
Do you (or anyone on the forum for that matter) know if there is any technical reason/restriction to allow dumb Oyster usage in the contactless zone? Hypothetically, we could then (eventually) have a system where Oyster could operate in a similar way (across the NR network) as the Dutch OV-chipkaart...?