When London Underground debuted its new ticket machines in the mid 80s, it didn't take long for teenagers to work out that wrapping a 2p coin with foil in such a way as to approximate the contours of a 50p piece would be accepted by the machine as a genuine 50p.
The flourish, however, was to buy an expensive weekly or monthly, load the machine with the dodgy coins, and promptly press cancel. The coin drums were giant carousels, and for every foil coin loaded at the top, a real one would be returned below. In this way it was easy to make upwards of thirty pounds at 1988 money, to sit in one's pocket alongside altered phonecards and voicemail retrievers.
Wonderful article dear boy, insightful and genuinely entertaining with it.
Without saying too much (and I do have professional experience in this area, and also retail POS), TfL chosen method of operations has traded reliability for valid card holders over declining invalid cards; and also simplicity of implementation, and minimisation of acquiring bank fees. The card schemes and acquiring bank capabilities were not designed to support this sort of transit ticketing at volume.
Could TfL achieve a better rate of accurate declines while maintaining reliable valid acceptances? Yes, with some additional development to detect intra-day cards that can't "settle" outstanding charges and add to block list. Without causing foreign tourists to be charged additional fees. This is not easy development to deliver at scale.
The acceptance of "restaurant" cards is however careless in my opinion; such cards are likely identifiable by the prefix of the card number (called the BIN, identifying issuing bank); the administrative challenge is keeping up with a changing list of cards issued for limited use purposes. TfL's acquiring banks should be assisting TfL's in house team (or Cubic) with that task.
I suspect the contactless card ticketing machines used on buses outside of London may have similar loopholes for similar reasons.
At least in London, public transport is not “supported hugely” by public subsidy — indeed, quite the opposite. As Mayor, Johnson did a despicable deal with then-Chancellor Osborne to scrap central government funding for TfL, and many of its financial problems have flowed directly from the resultant over-reliance on fare revenue and trading activities. Alongside the money-grasping commercialisation, TfL is kept under the cosh by the Treasury, which was forced to bail it out during the pandemic (or it would have gone bust) and imposed draconian conditions, including restrictions on Freedom pass usage. Of course it should be a public service, not a business, but Whitehall still refuses to see it that way.
YEP! Thanks Boris and George....REAL damage done. Why tube, trains starting to look shabby again. No other large Metro so hand strung. Spiteful and politically sectarian act, we all now lose.
See my other comment on this substack post as to why it is just not as simple as you assume, in context. Trust me, it really isn't. And it's more the fault of the wider banking system than TfL; would need quite a complex workaround to partially mitigate card processing limitations on how invalid cards are generally handled. TfL could do better but it has costs, they have decided it is cheaper to accept a few free rides. I think there is a quick (ongoing) admin fix that will significantly reduce occurrences of restaurant card use and it is reasonable to hold TfL to account for that.
As a side note: Post Office Horizon failed in a well known way that large distributed systems can fail (failing to record/transmit completed transactions); the fault was in not having proper compensating measures built in to detect this common foreseeable issue and automatically audit/true up at end of day; and perform root cause analysis to change software to minimise occurrences. Management failure in IT and business operations to correctly understand and manage this.
Note I don't work for TfL (you can find me on linkedin).
I think the key here is "TfL could do better but it has costs". Which returns to my concern that focusing on enforcement brings diminishing returns. I suspected it was a situation like this - after all, the sheer number of rush-hours transactions is huge. However, when the charges are resolved overnight, you can still then (I would think/hope) "freeze" access for any invalid card. So instead of one free ride, a dodger gets one free day, so had better bring extra lunch cards
The long-term fare dodgers are a big part of the small (admitted) problem, and get all the press. Having used TfL and commuter rail in London for decades, my experience has been that those most often accosted on transport tend to be those probably already receiving additional state benefits, so blood form a stone, low-hanging fruit, jobsworths, etc. TBH, I have to wonder how some get away with their fare-dodging for so long, and I suspect more of this serious"white collar" crime goes undetected
The other point to note is any solution needs to comply with latest PCI-DSS regulations. And get audited by external auditor. This pushes costs up.
No storing card numbers "in the clear" anywhere, even invalid ones.
This makes any localised card checking much more complex to implement (change the card to durable token ASAP in the gate and only match tokens). Phone wallets add further complications and considerations.
Surely each card is unique, so while TfL may allow entry with an expired or inappropriate card, it must know upon exit (and the fare charge attempt) that it is not valid? Then all it has to do is automatically block that card. If the system can't do that (and quickly), then it's probably not fit for purpose and run by the Post Office bunch - Fujitsu. Sure, scofflaws get one free ride, but their next attempt can be blocked and flagged for potential enforcement
That said, I am still a believer in free public transport. The parasitic load of turnstiles and collections, not to mention enforcement - also costs real money (much like the arcane Television Licence). I don't buy the claim that public transport is a "business. It is a service and already supported hugely by public subsidy - which we could at least hope is weighted more to the taxes paid by the wealthy than those collected from hourly paid toilet cleaners commuting from their shared accommodations in far-off zones into central London to clean the toilets of the rich (not to mention carers, nurses, teachers, et al)
The point is that (as Jim's piece already says) there is no "fare charge attempt" when the traveller exits the system. That charge only happens at about 3am the following morning. See Miles Thomas's comments for the detailed reasoning.
Interesting article, I certainly had no idea about the invisible fare dodging that goes on. If that’s as rife as suggested it’s absolutely outrageous. I have to admit I really really hate the barrier pushers. It’s so brazen and station staff do absolutely nothing to apprehend people doing it. It demeans our adherence to the rules and our expenditure. It especially frustrates me if I realise I’ve been tailgated as I exit the barriers. Surely a better barrier design could go a long way to solve the issue?
I've seen the (wonderful in all respects) staff at Highgate tube challenge barrier pushers, get sworn at and pushed past and - what do they do next? I'd be hesitant to blame station staff.
Or maybe a publicly funded free public transport system, and no barriers? I can well understand TfL staff not wanting to challenge barrier busters and possible consequences.
On a related point of fare evasion; evasion could be significantly reduced by raising the age for free travel (all modes all zones) from 11 up to 19th birthday for London residents (extend existing ZIP card scheme; and also allowing that card to be valid for voter identification). Make it possible to apply and get photo a local post offices to enable compliance.
Balance the cost by scrapping the 60+ pass or significantly increasing annual renewal cost with a means test (keeping the 67+ pass).
Personally, this would result in my free entitlement transferring to my son. I think that is an equitable outcome.
Jim's comment was specifically made about Berlin, and the "proof of payment" fare collection approach commonplace in parts of continental Europe, and relatively uncommon in UK.
The percieved level of compliance will drive activity of revenue protection team and costs of that activity.
The other way is for Londoners to accept some privacy invasion by having facial recognition cameras at all tube ticket gates.
It'll be easy to link back a fraudulent use card (or even gate jumping) to a face.
As the fare evaders clearly will need to use the Tube again, facial recognition will flag up, and make it easier to British Transport Police to find, stop, and fine.
Obviously the privacy advocates will say this is a gross invasion of privacy. But if it brings in half the date dodging revenue (1.4%) surely that's worth it, to keep costs down for everyone else? And it could be designed securely to prevent misuse of the videos and imagery of faces apart from just for fare dodging purposes.
When London Underground debuted its new ticket machines in the mid 80s, it didn't take long for teenagers to work out that wrapping a 2p coin with foil in such a way as to approximate the contours of a 50p piece would be accepted by the machine as a genuine 50p.
The flourish, however, was to buy an expensive weekly or monthly, load the machine with the dodgy coins, and promptly press cancel. The coin drums were giant carousels, and for every foil coin loaded at the top, a real one would be returned below. In this way it was easy to make upwards of thirty pounds at 1988 money, to sit in one's pocket alongside altered phonecards and voicemail retrievers.
Wonderful article dear boy, insightful and genuinely entertaining with it.
That ddn't last long as the machines were modified to give back the actual coins that had been put in thanks to an escrow.
Without saying too much (and I do have professional experience in this area, and also retail POS), TfL chosen method of operations has traded reliability for valid card holders over declining invalid cards; and also simplicity of implementation, and minimisation of acquiring bank fees. The card schemes and acquiring bank capabilities were not designed to support this sort of transit ticketing at volume.
Could TfL achieve a better rate of accurate declines while maintaining reliable valid acceptances? Yes, with some additional development to detect intra-day cards that can't "settle" outstanding charges and add to block list. Without causing foreign tourists to be charged additional fees. This is not easy development to deliver at scale.
The acceptance of "restaurant" cards is however careless in my opinion; such cards are likely identifiable by the prefix of the card number (called the BIN, identifying issuing bank); the administrative challenge is keeping up with a changing list of cards issued for limited use purposes. TfL's acquiring banks should be assisting TfL's in house team (or Cubic) with that task.
I suspect the contactless card ticketing machines used on buses outside of London may have similar loopholes for similar reasons.
At least in London, public transport is not “supported hugely” by public subsidy — indeed, quite the opposite. As Mayor, Johnson did a despicable deal with then-Chancellor Osborne to scrap central government funding for TfL, and many of its financial problems have flowed directly from the resultant over-reliance on fare revenue and trading activities. Alongside the money-grasping commercialisation, TfL is kept under the cosh by the Treasury, which was forced to bail it out during the pandemic (or it would have gone bust) and imposed draconian conditions, including restrictions on Freedom pass usage. Of course it should be a public service, not a business, but Whitehall still refuses to see it that way.
YEP! Thanks Boris and George....REAL damage done. Why tube, trains starting to look shabby again. No other large Metro so hand strung. Spiteful and politically sectarian act, we all now lose.
Ham. Not hand. As in hamstrings. A pedant writes 🤣
See my other comment on this substack post as to why it is just not as simple as you assume, in context. Trust me, it really isn't. And it's more the fault of the wider banking system than TfL; would need quite a complex workaround to partially mitigate card processing limitations on how invalid cards are generally handled. TfL could do better but it has costs, they have decided it is cheaper to accept a few free rides. I think there is a quick (ongoing) admin fix that will significantly reduce occurrences of restaurant card use and it is reasonable to hold TfL to account for that.
As a side note: Post Office Horizon failed in a well known way that large distributed systems can fail (failing to record/transmit completed transactions); the fault was in not having proper compensating measures built in to detect this common foreseeable issue and automatically audit/true up at end of day; and perform root cause analysis to change software to minimise occurrences. Management failure in IT and business operations to correctly understand and manage this.
Note I don't work for TfL (you can find me on linkedin).
I think the key here is "TfL could do better but it has costs". Which returns to my concern that focusing on enforcement brings diminishing returns. I suspected it was a situation like this - after all, the sheer number of rush-hours transactions is huge. However, when the charges are resolved overnight, you can still then (I would think/hope) "freeze" access for any invalid card. So instead of one free ride, a dodger gets one free day, so had better bring extra lunch cards
The long-term fare dodgers are a big part of the small (admitted) problem, and get all the press. Having used TfL and commuter rail in London for decades, my experience has been that those most often accosted on transport tend to be those probably already receiving additional state benefits, so blood form a stone, low-hanging fruit, jobsworths, etc. TBH, I have to wonder how some get away with their fare-dodging for so long, and I suspect more of this serious"white collar" crime goes undetected
The other point to note is any solution needs to comply with latest PCI-DSS regulations. And get audited by external auditor. This pushes costs up.
No storing card numbers "in the clear" anywhere, even invalid ones.
This makes any localised card checking much more complex to implement (change the card to durable token ASAP in the gate and only match tokens). Phone wallets add further complications and considerations.
Surely each card is unique, so while TfL may allow entry with an expired or inappropriate card, it must know upon exit (and the fare charge attempt) that it is not valid? Then all it has to do is automatically block that card. If the system can't do that (and quickly), then it's probably not fit for purpose and run by the Post Office bunch - Fujitsu. Sure, scofflaws get one free ride, but their next attempt can be blocked and flagged for potential enforcement
That said, I am still a believer in free public transport. The parasitic load of turnstiles and collections, not to mention enforcement - also costs real money (much like the arcane Television Licence). I don't buy the claim that public transport is a "business. It is a service and already supported hugely by public subsidy - which we could at least hope is weighted more to the taxes paid by the wealthy than those collected from hourly paid toilet cleaners commuting from their shared accommodations in far-off zones into central London to clean the toilets of the rich (not to mention carers, nurses, teachers, et al)
The point is that (as Jim's piece already says) there is no "fare charge attempt" when the traveller exits the system. That charge only happens at about 3am the following morning. See Miles Thomas's comments for the detailed reasoning.
Interesting article, I certainly had no idea about the invisible fare dodging that goes on. If that’s as rife as suggested it’s absolutely outrageous. I have to admit I really really hate the barrier pushers. It’s so brazen and station staff do absolutely nothing to apprehend people doing it. It demeans our adherence to the rules and our expenditure. It especially frustrates me if I realise I’ve been tailgated as I exit the barriers. Surely a better barrier design could go a long way to solve the issue?
I've seen the (wonderful in all respects) staff at Highgate tube challenge barrier pushers, get sworn at and pushed past and - what do they do next? I'd be hesitant to blame station staff.
Or maybe a publicly funded free public transport system, and no barriers? I can well understand TfL staff not wanting to challenge barrier busters and possible consequences.
On a related point of fare evasion; evasion could be significantly reduced by raising the age for free travel (all modes all zones) from 11 up to 19th birthday for London residents (extend existing ZIP card scheme; and also allowing that card to be valid for voter identification). Make it possible to apply and get photo a local post offices to enable compliance.
Balance the cost by scrapping the 60+ pass or significantly increasing annual renewal cost with a means test (keeping the 67+ pass).
Personally, this would result in my free entitlement transferring to my son. I think that is an equitable outcome.
Some major cities like Berlin have no barriers while still requiring payment....
That requires a culture of compliance and a bigger team for spot checking
You mean that Manchester has a culture of compliance that London doesn't have? ;)
Jim's comment was specifically made about Berlin, and the "proof of payment" fare collection approach commonplace in parts of continental Europe, and relatively uncommon in UK.
The percieved level of compliance will drive activity of revenue protection team and costs of that activity.
another EXCELLENT dispatch!
The other way is for Londoners to accept some privacy invasion by having facial recognition cameras at all tube ticket gates.
It'll be easy to link back a fraudulent use card (or even gate jumping) to a face.
As the fare evaders clearly will need to use the Tube again, facial recognition will flag up, and make it easier to British Transport Police to find, stop, and fine.
Obviously the privacy advocates will say this is a gross invasion of privacy. But if it brings in half the date dodging revenue (1.4%) surely that's worth it, to keep costs down for everyone else? And it could be designed securely to prevent misuse of the videos and imagery of faces apart from just for fare dodging purposes.
Typo apart, glad at last the 500m hole blown in TfL finances now known a bit more.
Jolly japes from that fun guy Etonian!
Why recent antics by fellow PS boys on the tube so without context. Him and George screwed whoever took over next- thanks from all of us.
question: would this be picked up by enforcement checks by tfl (thus users are taking a risk) or would those hand held readers also be fooled?
Wow, I hadn’t realised that it was Terry McMillan who had been stabbed. He had been involved in another prior case involving section 106 homes at the Jam Factory too: https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/the-court-battles-over-section-106-delivery--56141