John B wrote:

On Dec 7, 9:37 am, "solar penguin"
wrote:

If Oyster becomes standard on National Rail, it could be a serious
blow against proper point-to-point seasons. I'm worried they might
even be abolished on NR to force everyone into paying extra for
Travelcards, just like has already happened on LU.

Almost certainly the plan - and for my money it can't come a moment
too soon. The straightforward, convenient LU way of doing it is far
more sensible than the arcane, point-to-point NR way of doing it.

I'm curious. Why do you think zonal fares are "straightforward,
convenient" and "sensible"?

IMHO they're an ungainly compromise between a proper flat-fare system
and a proper route based system, either of which in themselves could be
"straightforward, convenient" and "sensible". But like all such
compromises, the zonal system manages to combine the worst aspects of
both and the best of neither.

Here's a simple example. Go one stop northbound from Kennington on
either of the branches of the Northern line. Common sense says that
these similar journeys ought to cost the same. Instead one costs much
more than the other because it just happens to take you across a random,
imaginary line on a map, while the other doesn't!

Add to that the fact with Travelcards instead of normal seasons, you're
forced into paying extra for availability on other modes of transport,
etc. that 99% of the time you're just not going to be using, and it
becomes even less sensible. (Well, I suppose that might be sensible,
convenient etc. for you, if and only if you routinely travel on many
different modes of transport. But for the rest of us, it just plain
isn't.)