On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 15:29:51 -0000, "Solar Penguin"
wrote:

Would having seperate fares for Waterloo and Mill Hill East lead to
*significantly* increased costs for equipment, staff, gates etc.? To
turn the situation on its head -- Ken Livingstone's planning to force
TfL's zones onto NR fares in London. How much will *that* cost for new
equipment, staff, etc.?

It will probably cost very little for NR to go zonal, because the
existing equipment is capable of issuing and validating everything
that is required to do so (as APTIS can issue most LUL tickets, as I
understand it, and even if it couldn't you could fudge something by
using specified destinations as zones). More Oyster validators will
be required, but that would be the case anyway if Oyster is extended
fully to NR, regardless of what the fares are or who sets them.

For the Tube to go point-to-point there would be a massive cost,
because TfL's ticketing equipment is *not* geared up to
point-to-point. The barriers would probably be easily adaptable, but
there are vast numbers of old-style ticket machines out there with
only zonal buttons, and they'd all have to be replaced.

Neil

--
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
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