On 25 Apr, 07:44, Graeme Wall wrote:
In message
Paul Weaver wrote:



On 5 Mar, 00:54, Mizter T wrote:
On 4 Mar, 23:25, Rupert Candy wrote:

DLR ticket machines aren't that unique - the Tramlink ones are of the
exact same design!

Indeed so, as are most of the ticket machines on the Paris Metro -
which have recently been adapted with smartcard readers for the Navigo
card. So it can be done!

And indeed it already has been done, hence this thread! The Scheidt &
Bachmann made ticket machines originally installed by Silverlink at
stations on the Watford - Euston line and some stations on the North
London Line have been so modified. The Oyster readers in fact appeared
on them ages ago, around the time of the handover to London
Overground, but as the OP reports they have only just been turned on -
which does suggest there were some glitches which meant they weren't
yet ready to be unleashed for public use (I'm guessing there were
software issues but I don't know so).

It would be really useful if the DLR machines did do Oyster - I was a
bit stumped the the other day with a friend who needed to top up their
Oyster card before catching the DLR at Shadwell - the nearest place we
could find was on Commercial Road.

It does seem a massive oversight to me, when TfL is trying so hard to
promote Oyster as a replacement for all paper-based tickets (which it
blatantly isn't, at least not yet!)

Well, of course Oyster Pay-as-you-go isn't available on most National
Rail services in London - but that's not for the want of TfL and the
Mayor's trying! It will happen in the next few years.

But the biggest flaw with oyster is the "bus replacement" issue. If I
get a tube from Epping to Oxford Circue, and there's a "replacement
bus" from Loughton to Leytonstone, I get charged for at least two tube
journeys, and maybe a bus journey too. In many cases at the weekend,a
paper ticket is cheaper, and certainly less stressful.

Whe I've used a replacement bus in London, the Oyster reader on the bus
wasn't in use. And how can a paper ticket be less stressful?

You buy the ticket in advance, and you know you have the right to
continue your journey. I was charged a fortune once, Epping to Cutty
Sark. Touch in at Epping, central line to Stratford, then what? No
barriers, cross platform interschange, should I Touch out on the
validator nearest to the tube, should I touch in on the DLR (platform
4), should I do both?

DLR then arrived at Poplar or West India Key, I forget. Should I now
touch out? Got on the replacement bus, nobody touched in. This took us
to Mudchute. Got to mudchute, should I touch in at Mudchute? Got off
at Cutty Sark, should I touch out? Are all the validators equal, or
are some "entry" and some "exit"? I managed to get three unresolved
journeys that day.

Same story on the way back.

Had I bought a paper ticket It would have been a hell of a lot less
stressful. Had I realised the DLR was out that day I wouldn't have
made the trip at all.