On 16/10/2015 14:47, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 14:36:52 on Fri, 16
Oct 2015, Clive Page remarked:
I have just renewed my Senior Railcard. I now have the problem of
loading the discount on to my Oyster card. The Senior Railcard
website says "take it to any London Underground ticket office"
ignoring the fact that these are closing down faster than one can count.

Are there any left in central London, and if not how can one get this
done?

You are supposed to be able to get this done by approaching one of the
invisible helpers lurking around the ticket machines, who replace the
lurking invisible helpers who used to be behind a window.

Thanks for the tip. I'll look out for an invisible helper next time I
pass through a tube station. Though if they exist at King's Cross St.
Pancras my guess is that they get overwhelmed by the all-too-visible
tide of arrivals from Belgium/France/oop north who need help using
unfamiliar ticket machines.

I notice that the authorities have given up on making the Senior
Railcard machine-readable: my old one had a barcode on the back, though
just carrying a serial number I think. The new one has an empty space
were it was. There are no signs that it carries an RFID chip either.
So registering discounts still has to be done by a human for the
foreseeable future.


--
Clive Page