Row breaks out over 'bug' in £1.2bn Tube smartcard system

A row has broken out between Transport for London (TfL) and Liberal Democrat London mayoral candidate Simon Hughes over claims that problems with the Tube's £1.2bn PFI Oyster card ticketing system are causing chaos for commuters and staff.

Hughes claims a 'significant' problem has emerged since the introduction of pre-pay Oyster cards and that a bug is preventing some passengers with weekly cards from entering and leaving ticket barriers. Another of the issues appears to be the time it is taking the Prestige computer system to load payments onto the cards.

One member of Hughes' office who has been affected told silicon.com he paid for his weekly Oyster card over the web but was warned it can take up to 72 hours for the payment to be activated.

Despite that warning, he received an email less than 24 hours later on Thursday morning informing him the card was now ready to use. But when he tried to go through the barrier at Finchley Road later that day he was stopped by a 'code 24' message indicating a 'negative pre-paid balance'.

He said the problem was not resolved until Friday morning and that several frontline London Underground staff told him there had been an increase in 'code 24' problems since the Prestige computer system behind the Oyster card scheme crashed last week and that it was causing staff and passengers "chaos".

He claims Tube staff told him that the problem is affecting pre-pay passengers who may not be aware of how long it takes for the credit to be activated as well as commuters using weekly cards, and that some cards have been recalled to try and identify the cause of the problem.

In a letter to London Mayor Ken Livingstone, Hughes said: "If there are bugs in the system which operates the pre-pay and weekly travelcard that cause misery for customers and staff then serious questions must be asked about the timetable and testing that was used to implement the card."

But TfL angrily denied the claims when questioned by silicon.com. A spokeswoman said: "There are some people having problems because they don't understand the system and they don't have sufficient funds on pre-pay."

She denied that the Prestige system had crashed last week and said no cards are being recalled.

The 17-year Prestige project is being delivered by a consortium of EDS, Cubic Corporation, Fujitsu and WS Atkins in what is one of the largest PFI schemes in the UK transport sector.