On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 12:49:19 +0100, Helen Deborah Vecht wrote:
I bought a platform ticket yesterday. The ticket man was rather
surprised that this was what I wanted. (I'd arranged to meet a friend
mid-commute to hand him some books.)

I thought it would be easiest to ask a Real Human™ for one but wonder:

Could I have bought it from the touch screen machine?
(I wasn't going to faff about to find that the machine didn't do them)

Don't think you can.

Would I have upset my Oyster if I'd tried to use it to open the barriers?
It's a Bus Pass with PrePay.
(I didn't try because I didn't want the Seek Assistance business.)

Yes, you would have ended up with an unresolved journey. Oyster
can't deal with entering a station and then leaving that same station
wihtout going anywhere. The station staff can't even cancel the
soon to be unresolved journey until 2 hours after you touched in.

David