In message , Paul Corfield
writes

I doubt that many NR stations will end up selling the full range of
Oyster services. We're £40m down in terms of this upgrade and there is
little expansion of Oyster capable retailing as a result. It's only at
joint stations plus whatever LOROL has taken over from former TOCs. Why
do you imagine there has been such a massive expansion and re-equipment
of the Oyster Ticket Stop network?

I wonder why the money spent on this expansion was not used to provide
Oyster retail facilities at NR stations. Surely that would have been
more useful to passengers, given the likely shift from paper tickets to
Oyster on NR throughout London?

Where I live, there are already eight Oyster Ticket Stops within a few
hundred yards of the station - it's just the station itself that lacks
the facility, even though it has a staffed booking office open for 16
hours a day! OTOH, the next station down the line is unstaffed and has
no Oyster Ticket Stop whatsoever nearby.

I dare say there wasn't much enthusiasm from the TOCs, of course, but I
wonder what booking clerks are going to do in the future, given the
almost certain decline in sales of paper tickets. It will probably be
used as an excuse to close more ticket offices, I guess.

--
Paul Terry