Calls for London-style Oyster card system on Edinburgh's public transport

It would allow users to start and end their journeys with a single ticket.

Edinburgh City Council has been urged introduce a fully integrated London-style public transport system that allows users to start and finish their journeys with a single ticket.

A transport pressure group and a senior city councillor called for Edinburgh to have a similar system to London’s Oyster card, which allows full access to the UK capital’s public transport network.

The calls came as self-drive buses – which could soon by plying Edinburgh’s streets – were demonstrated ahead of trials on the Forth Road Bridge.

A transport pressure group and a senior city councillorcalled for Edinburgh to have a similar system to Londons Oyster card,

Kevin Lang, Lib Dem councillor for Almond ward, said: “This should not be a revolutionary or difficult thing to introduce, especially when technology is used across different transport providers. In many ways it’s astonishing that kind of thing is not available already.

“People in my ward will often use train services to get into Edinburgh but then need a bus to get on to where they work, so this is not only important, it is an extra way of attracting more people to leave their cars at home and use public transport.”

A spokesman for the Edinburgh Bus Users Group added: “Everybody agrees that it is a good idea to have a first-class, fully-integrated transport system. This needs to be underpinned by a fully integrated ticketing system.

“A fully integrated ticketing system would also ease individual journeys by encouraging coordinated timetables with dovetailing connections, wherever possible, and provide standardised timetable information around a vastly simplified ticket portfolio.”

Responding to the calls, the city’s Transport and Environment Convener, Cllr Lesley Macinnes said: “We wholeheartedly agree with the Edinburgh Bus Users Group’s calls for an integrated ticketing system, which is something we’ve committed to as part of Edinburgh City Centre Transformation. By making travel by public transport easy and accessible we want to encourage as many people as possible to choose bus, tram or train over private car journeys, as a result reducing congestion and improving air quality.”