OK I am a regular Underground and Tramlink user but whenever I visit
DLR, (WIQ, West India Quay, and GAR, Gallions Reach) I often fail to
touch out.

Most valaidators face out so welcome travellers to the system but
don't help those existing the system.

Thoughts?

OC

On Feb 28, 7:43*am, Old Central wrote:
OK I am a regular Underground and Tramlink user but whenever I visit
DLR, (WIQ, West India Quay, and GAR, Gallions Reach) I often fail to
touch out.

Most valaidators face out so welcome travellers to the system but
don't help those existing the system.

Thoughts?


The DLR validators are often very badly placed. Examples:

Deptford Bridge (southern end), where the validators are near the
bottom of the stairs, but facing away from both the stairs and the
main road, towards the river path, easily missed.

Heron Quays, where the validator is in the middle of the area below
the station, nowhere near the stairs, such that if you leave at the
end nearest the Jubilee, you don't go past it or see it unless you
turn round and search for it.

Greenwich, where it's in the middle of the platform section that is an
island with NR, but if an unfamiliar traveller leaves from the front
half of a northbound DLR train and heads for the exit, expecting a
gateline as at Stratford, they won't pass any validators and would
have a very long walk back.

Solution:

Always have a validator at any point where people enter or leave the
platform (section) used by the DLR. At Heron Quays and Deptford
Bridge that would be at the tops of the staircases.

At Greenwich northbound, that would be at the wall beside where the
DLR disappears into tunnel (and also at the top of the stairs to the
other exit).

Stratford might be a special case (does it matter if you touch out at
both platform and gateline?). Also, these positions are not
exclusive. There could be additional validators at exits etc.

Advantages:

It wouldn't be possible, as now, for a large proportion of passengers
to enter/exit the DLR nowhere near the validators.

It wouldn't be necessary to touch in before being in sight of
information about whether the DLR is actually running.

On Feb 28, 7:43 am, Old Central wrote:
OK I am a regular Underground and Tramlink user but whenever I visit
DLR, (WIQ, West India Quay, and GAR, Gallions Reach) I often fail to
touch out.

Most valaidators face out so welcome travellers to the system but
don't help those existing the system.

Thoughts?

OC

Do they still have those misleading - totally incorrect in fact -
signs on the validators that only pay-as-you-go customers need to
swipe in? (It should be that all Oyster customers need to swipe in).

Offramp wrote:
On Feb 28, 7:43 am, Old Central wrote:
OK I am a regular Underground and Tramlink user but whenever I
visit DLR, (WIQ, West India Quay, and GAR, Gallions Reach) I often
fail to touch out.

Most valaidators face out so welcome travellers to the system but
don't help those existing the system.

Thoughts?

OC

Do they still have those misleading - totally incorrect in fact -
signs on the validators that only pay-as-you-go customers need to
swipe in? (It should be that all Oyster customers need to swipe in).

According to the "Common Questions" on the DLR part of TfL's website "If
you are using pay as you go, you must touch your Oyster card on the
reader every time you enter and exit the station."

If you are using a valid Travelcard loaded on your Oyster, or a Freedom
Pass, there's no point in touching in and out on DLR where there are no
gates.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

On 28 Feb, 09:55, Offramp wrote:
[DLR]
Do they still have those misleading - totally incorrect in fact -
signs on the validators that only pay-as-you-go customers need to
swipe in? (It should be that all Oyster customers need to swipe in).

Eh? Only PAYG customers do need to swipe in - if you have a Travelcard
that covers you for the zones you're intending to travel in, you don't
need to swipe in, whether you're on NR, LU, DLR or a bendy bus.

You might disapprove of this policy out of some misguided anti-season-
ticket-holder-animosity, but it's The Case [why the flaming hell would
it not be? They have paid a great deal of money for a valid ticket
that covers their journey...]

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

On 28 Feb, 10:09, John B wrote:
On 28 Feb, 09:55, Offramp wrote:
[DLR]

Do they still have those misleading - totally incorrect in fact -
signs on the validators that only pay-as-you-go customers need to
swipe in? (It should be that all Oyster customers need to swipe in).

Eh? Only PAYG customers do need to swipe in - if you have a Travelcard
that covers you for the zones you're intending to travel in, you don't
need to swipe in, whether you're on NR, LU, DLR or a bendy bus.

You might disapprove of this policy out of some misguided anti-season-
ticket-holder-animosity, but it's The Case [why the flaming hell would
it not be? They have paid a great deal of money for a valid ticket
that covers their journey...]


That's not quite true. If you have a zone 1 - 2 travelcard on Oyster
and continue to West Ruislip via Bank using PAYG for the excess, you
do need to touch in somewhere. True, you can do it at Bank, but might
as well be at your starting station to avoid forgetting.

On 28 Feb, 10:43, MIG wrote:
Eh? Only PAYG customers do need to swipe in - if you have a Travelcard
that covers you for the zones you're intending to travel in, you don't
need to swipe in, whether you're on NR, LU, DLR or a bendy bus.

You might disapprove of this policy out of some misguided anti-season-
ticket-holder-animosity, but it's The Case [why the flaming hell would
it not be? They have paid a great deal of money for a valid ticket
that covers their journey...]

That's not quite true. If you have a zone 1 - 2 travelcard on Oyster
and continue to West Ruislip via Bank using PAYG for the excess, you
do need to touch in somewhere. True, you can do it at Bank, but might
as well be at your starting station to avoid forgetting.

Hence "that covers you for the zones you're intending to travel in"
above.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

On 28 Feb, 11:20, John B wrote:
On 28 Feb, 10:43, MIG wrote:

Eh? Only PAYG customers do need to swipe in - if you have a Travelcard
that covers you for the zones you're intending to travel in, you don't
need to swipe in, whether you're on NR, LU, DLR or a bendy bus.

You might disapprove of this policy out of some misguided anti-season-
ticket-holder-animosity, but it's The Case [why the flaming hell would
it not be? They have paid a great deal of money for a valid ticket
that covers their journey...]

That's not quite true. *If you have a zone 1 - 2 travelcard on Oyster
and continue to West Ruislip via Bank using PAYG for the excess, you
do need to touch in somewhere. *True, you can do it at Bank, but might
as well be at your starting station to avoid forgetting.

Hence "that covers you for the zones you're intending to travel in"
above.

Yeah, I replied to the wrong message, sorry (wonders of Google).

On 28 Feb, 07:43, Old Central wrote:
OK I am a regular Underground and Tramlink user but whenever I visit
DLR, (WIQ, West India Quay, and GAR, Gallions Reach) I often fail to
touch out.

As an occasional visitor to London, with Oyster PAYG, I'm never sure
what to do on Tube-DLR transfers. At Bank, there are lots of signs
saying "always touch", so I always do.

But I did Central-DLR at Stratford the other week. Mindful of Bank, I
touched as I went past the validator on the platform. On the DLR
train, there was an inspector who told me I shouldn't have used that
validator - I should have just walked straight from Tube to DLR.

And then at Cutty Sark, I found myself going up and up and wondering
where the validator would be to touch out, worrying that I had already
missed it.

Not ideal. (But overall I have to say Oyster PAYG is still great as an
infrequent visitor; I much prefer it to paper ticketing with
travelcards.)

Sam

On 28 Feb, 14:18, Sam wrote:
On 28 Feb, 07:43, Old Central wrote:

OK I am a regular Underground and Tramlink user but whenever I visit
DLR, (WIQ, West India Quay, and GAR, Gallions Reach) I often fail to
touch out.

As an occasional visitor to London, with Oyster PAYG, I'm never sure
what to do on Tube-DLR transfers. At Bank, there are lots of signs
saying "always touch", so I always do.

But I did Central-DLR at Stratford the other week. Mindful of Bank, I
touched as I went past the validator on the platform. On the DLR
train, there was an inspector who told me I shouldn't have used that
validator - I should have just walked straight from Tube to DLR.

I've done the anecdote about when I was going from Euston to Cannon
Street (down the road from Bank) and forgot to touch in (used to
having a travelcard and the gate was open).

So instead of getting straight out at Bank and down Walbrook, I went
to the DLR and touched, then up the escalator to the Monument gateline
(equally adjacent to Cannon Street) and touched out and got charged
the correct price for a zone 1 journey.

It's almost as if the Bank validator doesn't know where it is, apart
from being somewhere in zone 1.


And then at Cutty Sark, I found myself going up and up and wondering
where the validator would be to touch out, worrying that I had already
missed it.

Not ideal. (But overall I have to say Oyster PAYG is still great as an
infrequent visitor; I much prefer it to paper ticketing with
travelcards.)