Paul Corfield wrote:

Having had to try to find a validator at Stratford to record an entry
on my (priv) PAYG card while trying to use the NXEA service to T Hale
I ended up walking for nearly 8 minutes to try to find one. There
are non on the Lea Valley platforms or on the corridors leading to
them. This strikes me as an omission. When I found one on the central
line platforms I ended just getting on the central line instead! I
imagine most people who have given up 7 minutes before I did. The
NXEA staff had no idea what I was talking about when I asked where
the nearest validator was.

You've reminded me that I was reading a thread in a rail forum a couple of
days ago where someone was adamant that all the platform interchange
validators had been switched off at London Bridge as soon as PAYG went live
on NR.

The main thrust of that discussion was someone asking how he should
correctly use PAYG to commence a journey, having travelled as far as 'London
Terminals' with a paper ticket from somewhere like Portsmouth.

If they really have decided to switch off platform (or paid side)
'interchange validators' as a matter of policy, such passengers from outside
the zones wishing to change to PAYG seem to have little option but to exit
using their paper ticket and re-enter using PAYG. Is this really the current
situation - and is it reasonable?

My own experience is of SWT stations such as Richmond or Wimbledon having
validators on the paid side specifically to start/finish PAYG having arrived
by a mainline service, but I must admit I haven't been to either recently.
What would be worrying is if someone has decided that all interchange
between PAYG and NR has to be done at the outer boundary, eg Zone 6
(ignoring the extended areas in the NW etc for the moment)...

Paul S