Allow big brother to spy on your movements or pay twice the price for travelling by bus and Tube in London.
Thats London's Mayor Ken Livingstone latest plan, announced today.
Thats London's Mayor Ken Livingstone latest plan, announced today.
A single Tube journey will cost £3 instead of the current £2 while a single bus journey will increase from the current £1.20 to £1.50. If you want to avoid the increase than you have to get an Oyster card and as a further encouragement they drop those fares from £1.70 to £1.50 (half the cash fare).
On the buses, a cash single will increase from £1.20 to £1.50 in January, while Oyster users will pay just 80p at or £1 in the morning peak.
Roger Evans, Conservative chairman of the London Assembly Transport Committee, said: "How can the Mayor expect people to leave their cars at home when bus and Tube tickets are spiralling out of control?
"Ken Livingstone obviously has not added up his sums correctly. He needs to boost his coffers through the already fed-up and frustrated commuter. London already has the most expensive transport system in the world.
Apparently a born liar, Mr Livingstone told a news conference at City Hall that the increased fares would raise an estimated £80 million when the change takes place in January. However this contradicts his other claims and makes any sense. His attempts to missled were revealed when he said that it would be inexplicable if people continued to pay cash after January.
The claims that the cash fare increase would boost income by an estimated £80 million from buses and £50 million on the Tube, are obviously a lie as if people switch to oyster as intended there would infact be a significant drop in income from fares.
Mr Livingstone has admited that the aim is to get more people to use the Oyster card technology which enables the authorities to monitor the movements of individuals using public transport in a similar way to the number plate tracking technologies already employed in the capital. He threatened, "The simple message is that you don't have to pay the new cash fares - switch to Oyster".
Ken claimed it was "bizarre" that people were currently prefering to pay with cash rather than get the centrally tracked oyster cards.
On the buses, a cash single will increase from £1.20 to £1.50 in January, while Oyster users will pay just 80p at or £1 in the morning peak.
Roger Evans, Conservative chairman of the London Assembly Transport Committee, said: "How can the Mayor expect people to leave their cars at home when bus and Tube tickets are spiralling out of control?
"Ken Livingstone obviously has not added up his sums correctly. He needs to boost his coffers through the already fed-up and frustrated commuter. London already has the most expensive transport system in the world.
Apparently a born liar, Mr Livingstone told a news conference at City Hall that the increased fares would raise an estimated £80 million when the change takes place in January. However this contradicts his other claims and makes any sense. His attempts to missled were revealed when he said that it would be inexplicable if people continued to pay cash after January.
The claims that the cash fare increase would boost income by an estimated £80 million from buses and £50 million on the Tube, are obviously a lie as if people switch to oyster as intended there would infact be a significant drop in income from fares.
Mr Livingstone has admited that the aim is to get more people to use the Oyster card technology which enables the authorities to monitor the movements of individuals using public transport in a similar way to the number plate tracking technologies already employed in the capital. He threatened, "The simple message is that you don't have to pay the new cash fares - switch to Oyster".
Ken claimed it was "bizarre" that people were currently prefering to pay with cash rather than get the centrally tracked oyster cards.
Comments
Hide the following 13 comments
Big Brother Forces Progressives onto their Bikes.
04.10.2005 17:58
All out for the next Critical Mass.
Og
ouch...
04.10.2005 19:27
American Anarchist
PFI
04.10.2005 20:47
yesh
Let's not panic here...
04.10.2005 22:06
Well yes they could do that, but only if you gave them your name and address when you bought the card.
I don't know anyone who was stupid enough to do that...
commuter
Red Ken
04.10.2005 22:51
With patience, every question gets an answer. Blair's covert high-ranking goon, Livingstone, has been key in fronting a whole series of awkward initiatives in London. The UK puts its public under greater surveillance than any other country on this planet, and London has the greatest number of surveillance devices in the UK.
Livingstone is the goon of visible and covert surveillance in London. He has never seen a POLICE-STATE method that he didn't like, and didn't back with total enthusiasm. For a minister of the crown to achieve what Livingstone has bought to pass in his brief time would have been virtually unthinkable. And the 'device' that made this possible??? Once again, the old favourite- the MOCK falling out between friends. If you were fooled back then, you should certainly have seen enough to NOT be fooled now.
So now, Blair's goon Livingstone says "be tracked on public transport, or else!". You might want to take this seriously, given Livingstones loving support of Ian Blair, and his 7 to the head policy.
Yeah, so is the NIGHTMARE getting bad enough for you yet??? Still waiting for 'mommy' to wake you up, and reassure you that the real world is all fluffy bunnies, and jolly holidays??? Never mind, perhaps you can escape to your own insane happy reality, like the 'hero' at the end of 'Brazil'.
twilight
name and address
04.10.2005 22:59
indeed
Don't you get it?
05.10.2005 01:40
1. Oyster cards will eventually complety replace cash transactions and if you want to use public transport you will have to get an Oyster card.
2. The 'dicount' prices on Oyster card are temporary and when most people have made the switch the prices will rise substancially.
3. At some stage you will be forced to provide a validated name and address to have and use an Oyster card (in order to stop terrorists obviously).
anon?
Going down the tubes
05.10.2005 09:36
I am getting a bike, if it gets any more insane in this country I am getting a boat.
Gerty
It won't stop with transport
05.10.2005 10:45
www.egovmonitor.com/node/107
Integrating Oyster Cards with other smart cards is already in use in some London boroughs - how long before Library Cards are integrated? Combined with increasing use of RFID tags which have the potential to track the movement of any and every item you own or purchase the implications for privacy and civil liberties are alarming.
Indymedia readers might also be interested in this article on Oyster Cards:
www.spy.org.uk/spyblog/archives/000198.html
Martyn
Stick yer Oyster card
05.10.2005 11:43
The cashless society is a drag, I like coins jingling in my pocket. I guess 'penny for the guy' and 'bob a job week' will be phased out?
Chippy
Tracking only useful with ID cards
05.10.2005 17:59
Then sure, there are the reports of soon to be compulsry radio chips in car licence plates... It is the beginning of a totalitatian police state. If the population as a whole don't seriously start to do someting about all this then we'd all better get used to it and quit complaining!
Fred
Don't need ID to screw you... it's the database!
05.10.2005 21:21
> said - if you give them your real name, address etc.. This information means nothing
> without either recording your image (as per airports) and/or compulsary ID cards to permit
> a card purchase.
I am affraid that is simply not true, as any terrorist caught thanks to mobile phone records could testify if given a chance.
Not have a correct name or photo attributed to a record is not a problem. Imagine you are stopped and arrested leaving the tube one day, they take your card and on checking the records they discover that some of your movements match the journeys of another subversive recently banged up for life for thought crimes. They know it's your card regardless of what false name you have been using it under.
Or, how about you have been attending secret meetings of a group of resistance fighters plotting the overthrow of the UKs military dictator. One night you a late leaving the house and arrive at Green Park Tube near the secret venue slightly later than usual. Turning the corner you find the venue surrounded by soldiers and all your comrades being taken away by the thought police. You return home in a daze and spend a restless night worrying about whether anyone will snitch on you. In the morning you decide you should go to work as normal. You walk to the station and pass you Oyster card through the barriers. Within seconds you are apprehended by the thought police.
How did they get you? Did somebody grass you up? How could they, they don't know your real name! No. The cops had checked the Oyster card records of your captured commrades and ran a query to find any other cards which had in the past arrived at Green Park Tube at around the same times as those who had now been arrested. Then they simply examined your regular movement to decide the easiest place to pick you up.
Just like 'anonymous' pay-as-you-go mobile phones, paterns of use and association will be available which can reveal your identity almost as certainly as if you can given them your real name and address.
Sorry, you thought your phone was anonymous? Not if your mum has called you on it. Not if you've left it on while at home each evening. Not id you HAVE turned it off each time you've returned close to home. Not if you've called friends whos phones ARE registered!
big brother
Oyster Card anonymity
07.10.2005 21:13
2. CCTV cameras record date/time stamped images of Oyster Card users as they proceed through the ticket barriers. The London Underground CCTV data is stored digitally, so affords random access.
Therefore, even though an Oyster Card has been registered anonymously (false details submitted), images of the user are recorded at the time of use.
Dataveillance