On 25 Jul, 16:33, " wrote:
On Jul 25, 8:16 am, "dB" wrote:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7524754.stm

The Oyster system used on London's transport network has broken down two
weeks after another fault left 40,000 customers with corrupted cards.

The latest problem has affected pay as you go Oystercards on the Tube
network.

Barriers are being kept open at all stations until the problem has been
rectified, Transport for London (TfL) has confirmed.

According tohttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7525894.stm

The problem existed between 6am and 10am.

Interestingly, I travelled on London Midland (Watford Junction to
London Euston) using PAYG during this time. Both the touch in and
touch out appeared to work correctly and the machine at touch out
reported the correct fare.

I didn't notice anyone having any problems at Watford Junction. And
people seemed to be touching out normally at Euston judging by the
beeps - although as that was platform 16-18 it's possible that things
weren't actually working properly for everybody.

Tim.

Today I used Cannon Street NR, where the barriers were working and I
didn't see crowds of people with travelcards on Oyster waiting to be
let through. I am on paper at the moment, so I didn't test it with an
Oyster Travelcard.

Then I used the Underground from Bank, and found that the gates were
open and completely switched off at both ends.

Maybe they spotted the conditions for another corruption of everyone's
cards in time to switch off instead?

I haven't managed to exploit any of this yet, because I've been
covered by a travelcard both times the system was switched off.