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Paul Corfield · August 28th 05, 07:14 AM posted to uk.transport.london

On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 21:04 +0100 (BST), (Colin
Rosenstiel) wrote:

In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

This happened when One upgraded from APTIS (which had a plug in
unit) to new machines which are not compatible. A nonsense but then
the attitude of the TOCs and Rail Settlement Plan to Prestige always
was nonsensical when I was trying to negotiate with them and
convince them that the scheme was going to happen. Now it has I
suspect the attitude has not changed very much if a recent article
in Modern Railways is anything to go by.

That's not all. I discovered recently the new tribute kit can't do two
singles for a return journey, the TOCs' coming way of doing cheap
fares. So I had to do two completely separate transactions, including
the credit card payments.

Hmm - bit odd that. Having read Barry's reply as well I think it is down
to staff training. I recently booked a series of fairly complex tickets
at Kings Cross GNER office (none on GNER trains either!) and that was
all one transaction and very efficiently done by the chap behind the
counter. I asked him if he liked Tribute compared to APTIS and he said
it was OK. He knew I was LU staff so wasn't completely taken aback by
that question.

What MR article, BTW?

IIRC Roger Ford did an Informed Sources article on Oyster, the ITSO
standard smartcard and how the TOCs were struggling to integrate either
card into their retail systems. It was published within the last 2-3
months. It felt as if time had stood still for 5 years - i.e. no
progress since I was dealing with the TOCs on this subject.
--
Paul C

Admits to working for London Underground!