On Apr 29, 3:06*pm, Mizter T wrote:
On Apr 29, 2:36*pm, Barry Salter wrote:

Hi folks,

As has been reported in the past, the extension of Oyster PAYG to
National Rail will see an end to the current fixed maximum journey time
of 2.5 hours for certain journeys. Instead, a *variable* maximum will be
applied when you touch out, based on the zones travelled through.

The latest list of stations affected by this has now appeared, and reads
as follows:

[snip list]

Note, however, that the definition of the variable maximums isn't given..

This is all part of the upgrade of the Oyster pay-as-you-go (PAYG)
system to enable it to handle a far more complicated range of journeys
when - eventually - it is accepted on all National Rail (NR) routes in
London. It should perhaps be made clear that this is *not yet* the
case - Oyster PAYG can only be used on some NR routes as detailed on
this TfL webpage (also see the associated PDF map) - you'll see that
this excludes pretty much all NR routes south of the Thames:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/oysteronline/5823.aspx

I must admit I'm rather unclear on the meaning of the specific list of
stations given in the original post - perhaps these are just stations
at which the 'variable journey time' system is being trialled? One
would obviously expect it to be implemented everywhere eventually.

I can't understand why it relates to stations at all, rather than
journeys.

It could mean that there are specific stations where it has been
decided that you could have arrived via what have secretly been
defined as different-length routes, depending on where you touched in.

Does it also apply to the shortening of maximum time, as mentioned in
another thread?

If so, would a journey from, say, Earls Court to Victoria be timed out
sooner than a journey from Gloucester Road to Sloane Square, which are
not affected stations?

(No answers expected, but something big seems to be going on that
really ought to have been announced and explained publicly.)