On May 29, 12:04*am, Mizter T wrote:
On May 28, 11:42*pm, Paul Corfield wrote:


On Thu, 28 May 2009 15:21:00 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
Hello!

Just recently noticed the prepay oyster readers (as in the stand-alone
on platform ones for when the ticket office area is closed and
passengers enter through an open gate) have appeared, albeit covered
up at the moment, at Crayford station in Z6 which is a Nat Rail
station.

Obviously this means that they are extending the payg system to
National Rail in London, but the million dollar question is will my
"Bus Operator" staff pass be valid on these services once Pay as you
go is active - as it has become on the new London Overground out to
watford etc?

There has been no info whatsoever published about if or how staff
facilities will be handled on National Rail PAYG. * If you are a bus
company employee that does not have privilege ticket facilities as a
result of being a former LT employee (prior to rail privatisation) I
would doubt very much if there will be any extension of validity. *Even
for those of us with NR privilege facilities I'd be surprised if the
TOCs mirror what LUL has done in providing a priv rate PAYG facility -
they'll probably prefer that people queue at ticket offices!

I'd have thought the TOCs might quite like the idea of getting priv
rate folks away from clogging up their ticket queues - you obviously
think otherwise! Would there be any possibility of activating the TfL
staff Oyster passes of qualifying employees for priv rate PAYG on NR -
or are they programmed in such a way so as to preclude them from ever
being used as an 'electronic purse' for PAYG purposes?

Given that there are no modifications planned to ticket issuing
systems at TOC stations as part of PAYG expansion I don't see how the
TOCs could move to a siutation where you could simply load cash on to
a priv rate PAYG card. I also suspect that they'd prefer to have the
cash in their hands via their own offices rather than wait for later
settlement but that's just my cynical view.

It is already the case that PAYG Priv Oysters can be obtained but
solely through TfL staff travel and then via LU ticket offices. The
emphasis is very much on this helping NR employees, who have
entitlement to priv rate travel on LUL, avoid the need to queue at LUL
ticket offices for each journey. A priv rate daily cap also applies as
per one day capping for full fare passengers.

I believe that LUL employees can obtain a priv PAYG card for use on
those sections of NR line already covered by standard PAYG. In some
cases that is a genuine addition but in others there is already
interavailability on a standard staff pass. It is not possible to open
a purse on Staff Passes as I believe they are encoded in such a way
that prevents it. It's the same issue as with Freedom Passes (when
they weren't available 24 hours a day) when people wanted PAYG added
for peak time travel.

I'm not fully au fait with the validity of bus operator passes but I
didn't think they all covered all of the TfL network - possibly the
whole network for former LT bus drivers who went to private owners at
the time of privatisation. I believed there were lower levels of
validity - especially for the tube and DLR - where bus company
employees joined after the sell off. It's possible that a different
scheme analogous to the standard TfL Staff Pass has been put in place
in order to reduce differentials in pay and benefits for all bus
drivers in London.

Overground concessions are funded by TfL - I wasn't aware they'd been
extended to bus employees unless you work for East Thames Buses?

I thought everyone with a TfL staff pass got free travel on all TfL
services, including the entire London Overground network

You need to be careful here as there are all sorts of TfL Staff Passes
- staff, dependents, retired, bus company employee etc.

For the standard pass you are correct in your statement and yes
Overground is included. It will be interesting to see if that also
reaches down to West Croydon and Crystal Palace when ELLX opens -
here's hoping. We also get a fair chunk of the normal
interavailability with NR (e.g. Stratford - Liv St, Fenchurch St -
Upminster) but there are differences emerging as PAYG expands. We
don't get Marylebone - West Ruislip nor Kentish Town - West Hampstead
on Thameslink. It's all horribly complicated which is why it will be
very useful indeed if we are able to have a priv PAYG that works on
all lines throughout the zonal area. I'd certainly have one and I'd
almost certainly use NR services far more - having to queue for
tickets or worse being completely unable to purchase a priv ticket
from machines and then either paying full fare or ****ing about trying
to get a ticket at a fare closest to the priv fare is just a
nightmare. Hence why I rarely use

In a completely ideal world we'd have one that worked across the
entire rail system but that presumes an ITSO card based system and
validators installed at all NR stations or else conductors / guards
being able to deal with cards on pay trains. Having recently made a
number of bus journeys in towns and cities outside London I really,
really wanted a smartcard that could work on all of them rather than
having to fork out cash every single time.

--
Paul C
via Google