On 20 Sep, 14:56, Matthew Dickinson
wrote:
First Great Western will accept Oyster Pay As You Go at all stations
between Paddington and West Drayton or Greenford from the 21st
September, according to a leaflet I picked up at Ealing Broadway
yesterday. The fares and peak periods will be the same as for the
tube.


Excellent news.

South of the river, I've seen new installations of Oyster readers at
Brockley and East Dulwich stations (the one at ED was also noted by
someone else here as well). I'm not 100% up to date on developments
but I presume that the Southern Metro network is gearing up for Oyster
acceptance - I understand that the new South Central franchise will
contain a commitment to smart card ticketing - presumably with a
specific commitment to Oyster, as opposed to merely ITSO?.

Some follow on questions - who's paying for and co-ordinating these
new installations - Southern acting on instruction from the DfT to get
things ready for the new franchise (and possibly franchisee), or
Southern acting off their own back in the hope of impressing the DfT
so they win the new franchise (which seems unliekly). Obviously TfL
will be in the mix there somewhere as well, not least because they are
partially funding this work (or at least I think they are, going by
past pronouncements).

And presumably these new readers are capable of both reading the
proprietary Oyster cards and also the new ITSO smart cards? I recall
reading something along the line of this being the plan from now on,
and in addition to this something about the DfT having agreed to pay
for the existing installed base of Oyster readers to be modified so
they can also scan ITSO cards.