On 2 Jun, 20:39, "Peter Lawrence" wrote:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/faresandtickets/7327.aspx

What this does not seem to cover is whether the pass works as an
Oyster card, so should be touched in, or should just be waved at the
driver. The latter gas been accepeted so far!


Yes it does, towards the bottom of the page there's this paragraph:

quote
If you live outside London and have been issued with a National
Concessionary bus pass on a smartcard, unfortunately the encoding
system they use is not compatible with Oyster. When being used for
free travel on buses in London, they will need to be visually
inspected by the driver.
/quote

In basic technical terms the MiFare smartcard readers used by Oyster
in London aren't yet compatible with the ITSO smartcard standard.

The page also explain to London Freedom Pass holders that they'll need
to show their card to drivers outside London even where such buses are
fitted with smartcard readers, as said readers are ITSO and the
Freedom Passes currently the Oyster/MiFare standard. I understand when
Freedom Passes are next up for renewal in 2010 they will be reissued
with dual Oyster/MiFare and ITSO capabilities.