TfL the new owner for Oyster brand!

Transport for London (TfL) has purchased the Oyster brand from the TranSys consortium for £1 million. TfL announced in August 2008 that it planned to terminate the ‘Prestige’ Private Finance Initiative contract with the consortium of Cubic Systems, EDS (part of the HP group), Fujitsu Services and WS Atkins from August 16 this year, replacing it with a five-year contract with Cubic Transportation Systems and HP Enterprise Services UK. TfL has repaid £101m of PFI debt early, saving around £4m in interest and giving it ownership of the ticketing equipment and back office systems. TranSys retains advertising rights on gate lines and ticketing media until March 2015. The move means that TfL will be able to investigate the future potential for Oyster to be extended to new and existing technologies and the commercial opportunities that provides.