Adrian wrote:

Mizter T ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were
saying :

~ Would Chiltern operate their own zonal system, a bit like zones A-D
on the Metropolitan line?

And there you touch on one possible reason they've done this... that they
already accept Oyster PAYG on the gates at Marylebone, because PAYG is
valid on the Aylesbury via Amersham route as far as Amersham.

I forgot to mention that Chiltern does indeed accept Oyster PAYG from
Amersham (zone D) into Marylebone. However I'd suggest that this is
because it shares the route with the LU Metropolitan line, and British
Rail / Chiltern Railways and LU tickets have always (well, not always,
but for a good while) been interavailable between Amersham and
Marylebone/Baker Street - i.e. you can use the ticket of one company on
the services of the other. I should add that I don't know the detailed
history of this ticketing interavailability!

Therefore, if Oyster PAYG is a form of LU ticketing it is thus
available for use on Chiltern. All that said, Oyster PAYG is available
from West and South Ruislip to Marylebone, whilst printed LU tickets
_do_not_ have interavailable validity on this route. So Chiltern have
obviously come to some sort of deal with LU here.

Indeed I guess that Chiltern have a more extensive deal with LU
regarding Oyster PAYG. AIUI the way revenue sharing works under printed
tickets on the shared Chiltern/Met section is that whoever sells the
ticket keeps the cash. I suspect that there's a slightly more
sophisticated formula when it comes to revenue sharing from Oyster PAYG
journeys, as such a scheme wouldn't really make sense.

But I agree with your underlying point - Chiltern are already familiar
with Oyster PAYG, and already have a close working relationship with
LU, which has meant they are more amenable, enthusiastic even, about
the prospect of extending the Oyster system to work elsewhere on their
routes than other TOCs are. That said, I await to see whether they are
actually interested in using Oyster PAYG outside the zones, or whether
they just wish to issue their season tickets in the form of Oyster -
which wouldn't count as any great shakes in my book.