On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 01:34:22 -0000, "JB"
wrote:

I realise everyone is going on about Oyster cards at the moment but the
leaflets being handed out aren't really that full of information.

Does anyone know if national rail are ever planning on accepting Oyster
cards for travel within London? I can see why they've go the readers at NR
stations with Tube interchanges but why do all the other gated stations have
them as well? If they do accept them will it only be for travel cards or
for single fares too? It would be quite useful for the occasional traveller
to have just one pre pay account for all public transport.

The minimum that should be provided is that Oyster cards with
Travelcards on them can be read by TOC gates.

At stations run by TOCs but served by LUL services (e.g. Kew gardens or
Barking) then those gates have to have equivalent functionality to a LUL
station as LUL fares apply there. Therefore Pre-Pay will work there.

There are some extra places where inter availability rules apply. This
is where the LUL fare is charged for travel on a TOC service. Old St -
Finsbury Park, Fenchurch St - Upminster, Liverpool St - Tottenham Hale.
In some of these places there are gates and they will work with Pre-Pay
(and travelcards obviously) but in others there are just validators.

There are plans to extend the interavailability provisions to include
more TOC services including into South London, more of Chiltern and the
North London Line. Pre-pay functionality would apply there as well.

In the medium term TfL have said they want to apply the LUL fare rates
to all National Rail journeys in the Zones. However there is no blanket
mechanism for doing this so they need to agree with each TOC. If that
happens then pre-pay would also follow and the Oyster functionality at
gates or validators would have to be installed. Whether your idea of one
pre-pay account is envisaged I do not know.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!