Reclaiming Revenue: Reaping the Benefits of Gating
The London Underground is one of the largest mass transit systems in the world. Its history dates back to 1863 when the first underground railway opened in London serving three lines. Since then, it has gradually expanded to its current daily levels of over 3 million passenger journeys per day, 500 peak trains, 275 stations served and over 12,000 staff.
This massive system uses a sophisticated
electronic faregate system to successfully move large
volumes of people and automatically collect their fares.
The high-tech gating solution has delivered reclaimed
revenue and invaluable operational data for Transport
for London and is now being replicated throughout the
Greater London Area.
The London Underground once followed
the “honor system” common
throughout Europe whereby no physical barriers are used
for electronic fare collection and access control. Collection
and enforcement are dependent upon social compliance
and visual inspection by transport staff.
Over the years, as the system experienced exponential growth, London Underground officials were alarmed by the fare evasion rates that plagued their system. Lost revenue due to fare evasion was estimated to be nearly 40 million pounds per year, as referenced by Steve Iontton, Prosecutions Manager in a December 02, 2002 press release posted on the Tube News. It became undeniable that something had to be done to recover these sizable losses.
Transport for London needed a highly
efficient, reliable and accurate solution for moving large numbers of people through its stations while automatically collecting fares owed. It was important that the system be safe, user-friendly, easy-to-learn and minimize disruption to the fast-moving public. The goal was to start with its busiest stations in Central London and expand outward over time.
An automated faregate system from
Cubic was the chosen solution for meeting Transport
for London’s goals. The first London Underground
gates were introduced in the late 1980’s with
cooperative acceptance from the public and immediate
operational improvements for the transport agency.
Hoping to install a similar scheme in the southwest London network, British Rail attempted to attract government investment but failed to do so and instead introduced a penalty fare scheme, according to British rail consultants, AEA Technology Rail. Ticket machines were introduced at all stations in the penalty fares area and spot fines were imposed by ticket inspectors on passengers caught without valid tickets. The penalty fares scheme was unpopular with passengers and was never established as an effective deterrent to fare evasion.
After privatization, the new train operators realized that changes were needed in order to reduce revenue loss due to fraud. By this time, the overwhelming success of automated faregates on London Underground promulgated Connex South
Central to install an automated faregate system developed
by Cubic at Balham in 1997. The trial was a success and Chiltern Railways followed two months later by installing gates at London Marylebone.
Following the success of the automated faregates at central London stations, London Underground has since launched and completed the Prestige Project which involved, in part, the installation of gates at all of its 268 stations. The gates now accept both magnetic tickets and the new award-winning Oyster™ card contactless smart card.
Cubic has now provided more than 3400 automated faregates at 379 stations in the greater London commuter area and continues to win installment contracts.
Additionally, Cubic has completed the first installations in the UK of its next-generation, advanced electronic gating system. The new system has been installed on the popular Glasgow-Ediburgh route of ScotRail Railways Ltd., the rail operator that provides nearly 95 percent of passenger train services in Scotland and also by Merseyrail, the rail operator that provides passenger train services in Merseyside, where all major stations have been gated.
According to Mike Wood, Senior Consultant at AEA in the March 2001 issue of International Railway Journal, experience at the train operator stations indicated that revenue could be boosted by about 10%, more than double what was expected. It was evident that the automated faregates were far more effective than checking tickets manually as the gates could check tickets with 100% accuracy, whereas staff were not always able to detect forged tickets. AEA also reported, “Immediately
after the installation of gates many operators noticed
other benefits. British Transport Police reported a
14% fall in crime on the railway in South London in
1998, the year after South West Trains had installed
gates at Wimbledon and Clapham Junction. As the stations
became cleaner and safer, it was possible to sell more
retail space thereby improving both the facilities
for passengers and increasing retail income for the
train company.”
An added benefit of automated faregates is their ability to record transaction details each time a passenger passes through. This provides the operator with real time information on passenger patterns and usage that allows the operator to use this information to adjust staff schedules to better meet peak demand at their respective stations.
Transit revenues are every operator’s
biggest source of revenue. Transport for London and
train operating companies throughout the greater London
area have found automated faregate systems to be an
effective solution for safely and efficiently moving
people throughout their stations while automatically
collecting fares owed. A victory for reclaiming revenue! |
