On Mon, 08 Dec 2003 21:42:17 +0000, Barry Salter
wrote:

On Mon, 08 Dec 2003 16:21:01 +0000, Jason wrote:
[Oyster Pre-Pay *not* available at intermediate WAGN stations between
Liverpool Street and Seven Sisters/Tottenham Hale/Walthamstow Central]
Utter madness - and willl certainly lead to even higher levels of fare
evasion on National Rail services.

Somehow I don't think anyone would really notice, at least not for
intermediate journeys. Okay, there's barriers at Liverpool Street (when
they're in operation),

Personally, I have no desire to evade paying the fare - but I do
resent being forced to pay MORE for a SHORTER journey!

Example: a journey from zone 1 via Liverpool Street to Seven Sisters,
Tottenham Hale, or Walthamstow Central will be £2.30 with Oyster, but
a journey to Stamford HIll or St James Street - both in zone 3 - will
be £2.50

but it's pretty rare for WAGN to do station
blocks elsewhere on the West Anglia side, other than during the peaks,
and even rarer to see Revenue Protection staff on board trains.

It's not about the prospect of getting caught for me, it's about how
unworkable the system is for National Rail where inter-availability
used to exist - and will thanks to Oyster Pre-Pay will disappear .

The fact is that an Oyster Prepay will record a Zone 1-6 journey for
passengers to Stamford HIll or St James Street (to use the same
example) as the journey can't be "ended" at these stations.

This is essentially creating a two-tier system for non-Season ticket
holders: i) those that use the Underground and ii) those that use
National Rail where tickets WERE previously inter-available. For
former gets 2003 prices , and the later gets lumped with a fare
increase.

I don't know who to blame Red Ken and TfL or the ATOC/WAGN, but I'm
not happy!


Cheers,

Jason.