Transport for London seeks suppliers for overhaul of fare collection systems

The Transport for London (TfL) Revenue Collection System collects in excess of GBP 5 billion of revenue per annum (pre Covid-19). The travelling public are able to use Oyster cards, ITSO Smart Card Media, printed magnetic tickets and contactless payments on all public transport services in and around London. Contactless payments can be on card, mobile device and wearable media.

The public transport services include:

• over 4 000 devices (including gates, validators and ticket machines) in 280 London Underground station ticket halls;

• validation equipment on over 8 500 buses and at 39 tram stops;

• over 5 000 devices at Docklands Light Railway, TfL Rail, London Overground and National Rail Stations;

• 4 000 devices at Retail Outlets;

• ruggedised validation devices at 23 river bus piers;

• supporting transactions generated from over 16 million journeys per day, 0.5 million retail sales per day and in the last year 12 million Oyster and 35 million contactless payment card used to make journeys.

The existing revenue collection system is currently provided under a single contract.

This contract comprises the provision, operation and maintenance of the following:

Front office

— automated fare collection equipment (currently encompassing bus ticket machines, gates and validators along with their associated local area network and control devices),

— retail equipment (encompassing both passenger and staff operated devices along with their associated local area network),

— handheld devices to support front line customer service, fare collection and revenue inspection activities.

Middle Office

— data aggregation equipment.

Back Office

— oyster back office systems,

— integration with TfL’s contactless back office system,

— magnetic ticketing back office systems,

— ITSO back office systems,

— payment card processing systems,

— system control and monitoring systems,

— helpdesk,

— first, second and third line support.

Data Centres (hosted by TfL)

— infrastructure (server hardware, operating systems),

— network design.

Retail network and ticketing materials

— management of the TfL ticket retail network,

— bulk, overseas and corporate ticket sales,

— enablement of the Oyster cards,

— stock management and distribution,

— supply of magnetic ticket stock.

The current contract also has responsibility for systems integration for the revenue collection system. This responsibility includes, but is not limited to; the operational and technical integration of modules of the system, the safe introduction of new or changed technologies and services, ongoing activities to identify and address obsolescence, and to manage faults and incidents as they should occur in day to day operation of the system.

As systems integrator, the contract holder is responsible for working with TfL as technical authority and with other TfL contractors and interfacing parties to ensure the performance of the services is maintained throughout the lifetime of the contract. As an example, wide area networking and data centre networking is operated and maintained by a separate TfL sub-contractor.

Key projects

During the life of the future contract, we anticipate that there will be the following changes within the revenue collection system:

• older pneumatic powered gates, mainly found in Central London, will be replaced,

• replacement of validation readers,

• migration of Oyster on to the same technology platform as contactless payments, allowing the legacy back office system to be retired,

• replacement of the revenue inspection device.

Description of the Procurement:

TfL is seeking to carry out early market engagement and engage with suppliers who have experience both in revenue collection and the transport industry.

Potential suppliers should have experience in an environment that is commensurate in scale and complexity to TfL.

In particular, we are interested in engaging with suppliers that may be able to add value/innovation and who feel they have the capability within these fields and/or who could partner with other organisations. TfL is open to explore different procurement packages as there may be an opportunity to disaggregate elements of the contract. As such the approach may result in one or more procurement processes for single or multiple elements of the services.

Interested parties are requested to express interest by 4 December 2020 and respond to the TfL revenue collection system questionnaire as instructed in the additional information section. Information provided in responses will be used to inform TfL’s approach to the procurement of a revenue collection system contract. TfL may at its sole discretion enter into further discussions with relevant respondents.