Joyce Whitchurch wrote:
wrote:
Tell me about it, the thing is that inevitably someone with an
incomplete journey cannot understand what they did wrong. The basic
thing people need to learn is there's more to successfully touching in
or out than waving your Oyster in the air in the approximate vicinity
of the reader. It must beep at you once, and will show you on the
screen that it has been successful.
There's a screen? Where?
I can see a reader. I can hear some beeps. But the only way I can tell
if my journey has been costed correctly is by finding one of the few
Underground ticket machines (without a queue in front of them) that will
tell me what journeys I've made.
You're confusing two things here Joyce!
A standalone reader - one not attached to a gate - has a dot-matrix LCD
screen that displays some simple text. In standby mode it says
something like "READY" - once you do touch in it has a two line display
saying "DEDUCTED £1.00 / BALANCE £5.50" for example. There is also a
separate light that is normally yellow which will turn to green if you
successfully touch-in/out.
There are similar text displays on the Oyster readers on bus ticket
machines, and on the readers on bendy buses, as well as on Underground
ticket gates. The new gates also show this information prominently on
the display next to the green 'walk-through' arrow (a possibly personal
security risk, but that's another discussion!) , the older modified
ticket gates have a very small text display near the Oyster reader.
The thing you're getting the muddled up with is the touch-screen ticket
machines that allow you to view your recent journey history (last 8
journeys).
This same journey history is also available via your online Oyster
account as long as you fulfil some conditions such as buying PAYG
top-up online and collecting it by passing through the gates at a
nominated Tube station. Apparently the online journey history facility
is being tested and will roll out to all other registered users over
time. I must admit that (unusually for someone who likes to fiddle with
such things) I haven't yet got this up and running myself so it's a bit
of a mystery to me too.
You can also - if your card is registered - get a three month print-out
of your journey history sent to you from Oyster customer services, and
possibly get some kind of print out from LU ticket offices.