On 23 Dec, 18:04, Matthew Dickinson
wrote:
On 23 Dec, 16:17, Mizter T wrote:



On 23 Dec, 15:49, "David A Stocks" wrote:

"Mr Thant" wrote:

20 September 2009 is also the Southern franchise changeover date.

For someone like me, who uses a paper annual NR season plus PAYG for
occasional trips in London, this could be a real nuisance. I have already
mistakenly presented my Oyster card to the NR barriers at Victoria. At the
moment this is no problem: the barrier refuses the card and I get out the
season ticket instead. What's going to happen in the future? Will I get
charged a minimum cash fare and then have to call a premium rate number
to get it refunded? If Southern can offer Oyster compatible tickets all the
way to the coast then the issue goes away, but I don't see evidence of this
happening within the next 9 months.

It remains to be seen whether that could even happen in the next 9
years!

I don't now see Oyster PAYG as a charging scheme extending at all
outside Greater London, apart from it being extended to Maidenhead &
Shenfield in due course.

Sorry, I was unclear - I didn't mean Oyster PAYG, instead I was
referring to a future smartcard system for the new Southern franchise
- which I presume is a requirement of the new franchise agreement, or
is it not?

My scepticism about the timescale for any Southern smartcard system is
based on the muddled rollout of the SWT system, which sounds as though
it is some considerable time away from being made universally
available across their routes.

Anyway the notion of a smartcard system offering a pay-as-you-go
facility over a widespread area seems somewhat unlikely, as there is
are some almost insurmountable issues with any such implementation -
anyway I understand that the TOCs plans for ITSO smartcards don't
really feature pay-as-you-go as a possible application either.
Individual pay-as-you-go system remains a possibility in specific
'metro areas', with acceptance on buses (and trams) as well.

We discussed many of these issues in a recent uk.r thread, "Smartcard
readers at stations in Hampshire/Dorset?":
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....08f185d6b9c1f/


Note that David Stocks actually said "[i]f Southern can offer Oyster
compatible tickets all the way to the coast [...]" - such a thing is
certainly possible, but it would just be a combined smartcard
fulfilling two separate functions, that of...
(1) a Southern ITSO smartcard, perhaps holding a virtual carnet of
Brighton to London tickets, and
(2) an Oyster card, offering Oyster PAYG capability for journeys
within London.

In other words the card would simply offer the benefits of two
separate cards, combined into one card - it would just be handy,
that's all! (The existing Barclaycard OnePulse card is basically
this.)


The Trainline did propose at one point to issue tickets on Oyster
plastic, but with the removal of Mifare Classic as a option for
National Rail ticketing, I don't think there will be any future moves
in this direction.


I vaguely remember something about that - was it ever anything other
than them thinking allowed?