Quote:
Originally Posted by Jamie2k9
As the saying goes, buy cheap get cheap and that's exactly what IE and our whole transport system is about.
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The problem is that Leap wasn't cheap. It ended up costing tens of millions of euro. As an engineer, I'd suggest the fundamental issue with Leap is that the underlying requirements are too complex. It is completely bonkers that you need to run up to 6 simultaneous tickets on the card. They should have taken the opportunity to simplify the fare structure.
With all the delays during its development phase, Leap was basically obsolete by the time it came out. Oyster is on the way out now to be replaced by virtual cards on debit cards. In 2016, mobile phone ticketing should be high up on the agenda yet it doesn't even enter into the discussion. Given that it is possible to top up your Leap card with an Android phone, surely making you android phone be your leap card or Intercity ticket isn't outside the laws of physics.
I'm guessing that because our ticketing is so complex, that pretty much everything about Leap was developed from scratch rather than bought in as a solution so to change anything costs an absolute fortune. So we'll probably still be unable to open a barrier with our smart-watches / wrist implants / brainwave amplifiers or whatever in the 2040s.