London Banter - View Single Post - Rail-only season tickets and Oyster

Paul Scott · April 27th 09, 09:06 AM posted to uk.transport.london

wrote in message
...
In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

On Sun, 26 Apr 2009 21:22:45 +0100, "Juno"
wrote:

I currently have an annual rail-only season ticket from my local south
London station to 'London Terminals'. I do not need or want a season
ticket that allows me to use the London Underground or London bus
services.

When my local station is 'Oysterised' what will be my ticket renewal
options?

Will I be able to buy:
- a rail-only, non-Oyster, season ticket that is inserted into the
barrier to open the gate, i.e. an exact replacement of what I
currently have?

- a rail-only, station-specific, 'Oyster' season ticket, i.e an
Oyster equivalent of what I currently have?

Or will I have to buy some kind of (more expensive) zonal Oyster
ticket that will give me a lot of different travel options that I
don't actually want?

It depends what people mean by "Oysterised". If it means the extension
of PAYG then put simply that is just an extra product. It does not
replace anything. If you mean having gates installed then that does not
affect the product range sold at a station.

In short there is no policy in place where providing an Oyster only
product like PAYG or Oyster compatible equipment results in the removal
of existing ticket products. As things stand you will be able to
continue with a magnetic format rail only season ticket if you so wish.
Obviously you cannot rule out changes to ticket products but I would
expect the removal of rail only seasons to be hugely unpopular with some
rail passengers as well as the TOCs themselves. TfL have no unilateral
right to require such a change and would have to fund compensation
payments to the TOCs if they did demand it. As TfL's budget is shot I
can't see that happening any time soon.

I thought all in-London train fares were moving to a zonal charging basis,
though?

In boundary seasons are supposed to be changing to 'zonal fares' in 2010
according to the original announcement about 'non seasons' back in late
2006. Of course that doesn't mean they'll become travelcards, just that all
seasons with a particular start zone and destination zone will be the same
price. The question is whether they will still be printed with station
names like the daily tickets.

No doubt there will be some jumps or falls in price, and similar levels of
media hysteria as there was when 'disgusted of Surbiton' saw his day return
go up by 30% back in Jan 07...

Paul S