John B wrote:


Oyster will be implemented on NR from January. It'll be more expensive
and annoying than the implementation on TfL modes, especially if the
ridiculous Extension Permit plan survives. So your life will be more
annoying than that of North Londoners, but less annoying than it was.

Meanwhile, the procedure for people who currently use Oyster on TfL or
on interavailable-ticketing services *won't change at all*. How on
earth is that going to lead to an 'implosion'?


I can foresee one problem - where current NR-originated PAYG journeys
are a bit of a bargain and people have got used to them, they sometimes
instantly stop being a bit of a bargain on 2/1/2010 and sometimes carry
on being a bit of a bargain, while Overground journeys (which Joe Public
won't necessarily judge differently from NR) remain so. Result: confusion.

Ahem. Example time.

West Ealing (Z3) - Paddington (Z1)

Currently: £2.70/£2.20 (Peak/Offpeak).
Moving to: £2.60/£2.00

Trebles all round!

Now, supposing you want to extend one stop from Paddington to a
convenient Tube station:

West Ealing (Z3) - Edgware Road (Z1)

Currently: £2.70/£2.20
Moving to: £3.70/£3.10

This is the £1.10 premium seemingly applied to any extension from NR to
LU in Z1, but not in other zones. It only really becomes obvious as a
big price hike if you've got used to an existing PAYG-on-NR deployment
like FGW's.

Now a question - does anyone know at what farescales the following would
be charged at?

Ealing Broadway - Paddington
Ealing Broadway - Edgware Road

Both are, like West Ealing, Z3-Z1 journeys currently charged at
£2.70/£2.20, but there's a case for multiple fare scales applying:

EB - Padd

LU £2.70/£2.40
or
NR £2.60/£2.00


EB - Edgw.Rd.

LU £2.70/£2.40
or
NR/TfL £3.70/£3.10

I'm frankly bemused by all this, but at present I'll look to use PAYG on
NR for journeys not including Z1, where it makes sense (I don't usually
have a travelcard, so OEP idiocies don't apply).

Tom