On Jun 9, 7:55*pm, wrote:
I talked directly to SWT and TFL and the mayors office today and both
TFL and the mayors office say Oyster will be valid. *SWT are adamant
they will be refusing them except on the advertised routes and said
they were expecting numerous complaints but that the agreement was as
described in newsrail express and Southeastern agree. *I'm waiting for
SWT to try to penalty fare someone for using Oyster as per the
incorrect National Rail and TFL instructions!!!

How interesting - there seems to be a direct disagreement between TfL
and at least some of the TOCs on what this agreement constitutes then.

Perhaps anyone getting PF'd should simply give their name and address
as Boris Johnson, City Hall...

Other point of humour was that the TFL info line was swithced off
today saying that they were expecting call volumes that were too high
to deal with and so they were unable to answer any! *How can something
so simple be so complex.

I dunno about earlier, but I've just tried it now (i.e. 8pm) and the
option to speak to a travel advisor existed, though when I chose that
option I was unsurprisingly put in a queue (I've hung up as I don't
need to talk to them). The introductory recorded message (somewhat
incongruously spoken by a bloke with an Aussie accent!) didn't say
they weren't taking calls either - though did direct one towards the
web and also to TfL's SMS response service.