Peter Frimberley wrote:

Having oyster machines sit there unused during the transition phase,
taking spaces from the cash only machines, would also have provoked
heaps of complaints.

There's no reason why a touch-screen machine that did both couldn't fit
the small slots.

What are *your* reasons for not using auto-topup, just to prove you're
not on some anti-TFL rant purely for the sake of it.

Because I don't use Oyster often enough, nor (under the old system) was
there a station where I was most likely to want to pick it up (I mostly
used it for buses, though now this has changed so auto top-up works on
buses I might well set it up).

Notably, the only place where I had a potential issue was Richmond,
where there are *no* LUL ticket machines. Fortunately I had (only
just) enough credit.

That said, the current arrangement has not been a real problem *to me*
- but it clearly is for others.

Neil