On Thu, 11 May 2006 10:51:38 +0100, Paul Terry
wrote:

In message , Paul Corfield
writes

I'm just pleased to see some sort of progress at last. I'm curious to
know what strong arm tactics have been employed to get this deal
through.

A film clip on the news last night had Ken claiming that failure to
co-operate with Oyster would result in franchises not being renewed -
although quite what clout he has to back that up is not entirely clear
to me.

On a slightly different tack, there is one part of this little saga that
has received little attention in the press:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05...tcard_shelved/

(TfL abandons plans to add e-payments for parking and goods to Oyster).

I wonder if that was a sweetener to help get the TOCs onside?

I doubt it. I suspect that they were being frank when they stated that they
had trouble identifying the requirements and specifications for the work to be
carried out.

However, they should have talked to Hong Kong, where the similarly oceanic
Octopus card is able to be used for small transactions in shops and the like.

Many newsagents have Oystercard readers and it would seem to be achievable to
allow me to renew my Oystercard and buy my Grauniad at the same time.

It will come, but perhaps not for a while. Cash is expensive to handle, so any
mechanism that redues the amount of cash (especially coin) an entity must
handle will be welcomed.
--
Chris Hansen | chrishansenhome at btinternet dot com
|http://www.hansenhome.demon.co.uk or
|http://www.livejournal.com/users/chrishansenhome/