EDS has secured a High Court order to stop another member of the
consortium running the Oyster card system taking over the whole
contract.
In a further setback for the beleaguered smartcard payment
system, the temporary order is disrupting the transport authority's
plans to replace the TranSys consortium that has been running
Oyster.
EDS, a leading member of the
consortium, has secured the order against Transport Trading Ltd
(TTL), a subsidiary of Transport
for London (TfL) after the authority last week gave
two years' notice to terminate the contract.
TfL said that the termination of the contract was unrelated to
software glitches that caused chaos for passengers, whose swipe
cards became corrupted or stopped working. TfL is
seeking £1m compensation from TranSys over losses it says were
caused by the chaos.
The authority was planning to give the Oyster contract to the
other main member of the TranSys consortium,
Cubic Corporation,
from August 2010.
But a filing by Cubic to the US
Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that EDS has
blocked that move with an interim order.
The filing said, "In early 2007, TTL expressed its desire to
restructure its contract with TranSys to obtain better terms.
Negotiations with EDS and Cubic commenced under the TranSys
umbrella and continued through February 2008.
"At the end of February 2008, TTL notified TranSys that, while
satisfactory progress had been reached with Cubic, negotiations
with EDS had failed. TTL terminated negotiations with TranSys, but
continued separate negotiations with EDS and Cubic outside the
TranSys umbrella.
"Negotiations with EDS failed again. TTL then negotiated with
Cubic to perform the entire project."
"These negotiations were successful and a new contract called
the Future Ticketing Agreement (FTA) has been prepared under which
Cubic would provide TTL with all services from 2010 to 2013."
"It was TTL's intention to sign this contract simultaneously
with terminating the existing TranSys contract. EDS has obtained a
temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing TTL from doing
this.
"Cubic believes that TTL will have this TRO lifted by the end of
this year. When this occurs, Cubic and TTL now intend to then sign
the FTA."
A TfL spokesman said in a statement today, "EDS, one of the
partners of the TranSys consortium, has sought to challenge the
procurement arrangements for the new contract. Transport for London
is vigorously defending this challenge and have appealed against
the interim court order.
"We remain committed to delivering better value for money and to
ensuring a seamless transition to any new contract from 2010."
No one could be reached at EDS for comment in time for
publication.