On Sun, 3 Jan 2010 19:40:38 -0000, Paul Scott wrote:

Paul Terry wrote:
In message
,
MIG writes

My initial reaction to the news of OEPs was that TOCs had been forced
to accept Oyster and were determined to sabotage it by making it
unusable. That opinion hasn't changed.

While I agree that OEPs currently seem a total mess, I don't think
that will do anything to sabotage Oyster. When OEPs were first
announced it was said that the percentage of journeys likely to need
an OEP was incredibly small. That's no excuse for making the
procedure difficult, of course, but it is not necessarily an
Oyster-stopping issue.

I suspect as franchises are renewed (as seen with SN recently), DfT will
work towards having all stations in the zonal area fitted with barriers, at
which time OEPs will become redundant?

They'd only become redundant if the stations were also staffed while
open, since the barriers would have to be left open while the station
is unstaffed, which at many stations is most or all of the time.