On 08/09/2014 22:09, Roland Perry wrote:
[...]
I was a little surprised that it all works. I wonder whether RPIs
will be able to check the card..

hmm - very good question. I hadn't thought about that but these
seismic changes in card acceptance [1] do present some interesting
revenue protection issues for TfL and the TOCs. I'm not aware that
new readers have been procured but I don't use rail services very
often these days so may have missed some changes.

One of the problems with one-TOC ITSO cards is their lack of
interavailability with other operators on the same route which people
take for granted with paper tickets.

I haven't seen the T&C for using Contactless cards on TfL (and I bet
neither have 99.99% of the people about to be using it). [...]

The currently available T&Cs for contactless only cover bus travel:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/contactless-conditions-of-use.pdf

[...] One way to do
revenue protection (as long as the T&C allow it) is to swipe the card
the same way an entry/exit barrier does, and then use the overnight
back-office system to decide to either ignore it as redundant [when
someone has been good] or use it to charge a penalty fare [when you
suspect they haven't].

Inevitably there will be false positives [a penalty fare charged when
not warranted] which should make a good story in the next day's Evening
Standard. Assuming that anyone notices, which I'm sure TfL will be
hoping they won't.