"Matthew Dickinson" wrote in message
...
The Southeastern website has an interesting new answer to the PAYG
acceptance question.

http://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk...&q=90#answered

"10. Do you accept Oyster cards on your network?
We do already accept season tickets on Oyster on our network ( within
the valid zones) and while we do not yet accept Oyster Pre-Pay,
Southeastern announced its commitment to work with Transport for
London (TfL) to introduce Oyster Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) on Southeastern
within two years. The implementation of PAYG will require significant
investment and Southeastern is working with TfL on issues such as the
need for additional validators at stations; the ability to sell and
top-up Oyster; and the possibility of installing automatic ticket
gates at some stations. There are still a number of issues to resolve
but we hope to implement Oyster PAYG on Southeastern by January 2009.

Oyster PAYG will not be cheaper than our usual rail fares."

I wonder if the last link hints at some of the issues surrounding PAYG
on Southeastern?

I'm not so sure it is that new - although it may only have just made it to
the website. Jan 09 has been the PAYG target date for quite a while now.
Maybe it hints at following up from last year's changes to make all the NR
fares 'zonal' within the London fare zones. At the moment there is a
transitional stage where certain fares are still calculated differently on a
'rail +tube' basis - I think it might be these that have to be sorted out
for next year?

Paul S