On 12 May, 19:00, John B wrote:
First Great Western are to be the first according to the radio.
Boris has done it so fast, it's a pity Ken did not try it (;-)

Ken was trying,

Boy, you can say that again!!! :-)

but apparently Boris has adopted a "less
confrontational" approach which appears to be paying dividends.

Or, in the real world, Ken had already achieved it (Oyster was already
scheduled for roll-out on National Rail by 2009) but Boris took the
credit, and the Standard has let him get away with taking the credit.

Sorry, don't agree. No other TOC had signed up to Ken's proposals as
he refused to pay the entire cost of barrier & software installation.
And he was / Boris is unable to 'force' TOCs to accept it. I suspect
Boris is eithere paying or otherwise doing deals, which Ken refused to
do.


Still, I'm sure the London press will be happy to apply just the same
levels of scrutiny to the new mayor that it applied to his
predecessor. Oh yes.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot orgwww.johnband.org