Mizter T wrote:

On Jul 3, 7:02 pm, "solar penguin"
wrote:

Martin Petrov wrote:

Drop the sarcasm cos it makes you look a cock.

Better than sounding like an Oyster-apologist suck-up troll.

You're the troll.

I've often been called that in the past. But right now I'm not arguing
purely to cause trouble, but out of a genuine desire to give the facts
for the other side of the argument.

And what the hell is this about being an "Oyster-
apologist" - what on earth is that meant to mean?


I don't know. To be honest, I'm not very good at insults. That was the
best I could manage.


Who the hell are you to
question whether or not "I've bought a paper ticket in the last
few years".

I'm someone who's had to buy hundreds of paper tickets in the past
few years, that's who!

That doesn't make you Martin though does it.


No, but if does make me sceptical when his experience is 100% opposite
from mine.

For example, if your personal experience tells you that water is wet,
you'd get very suspicious if someone claimed they'd only been using dry
water for years and then started ranting about how it was not fair that
they were forced to use wet water on a recent visit to Ilford.


If I tell you I've not, then I've not, ok?

That still doesn't stop it being very hard to believe.

In which case you are as blinkered as you're trying to paint Martin.


So what? We're all blinkered in our own different ways.


"There exists SOME journeys where you can't use an Oystercard".
Brilliant. Buy your paper ticket then.

Yes, like I said, for most journeys you still need to buy a paper
ticket. I'm glad you're finally seeing that.

What is this "most journeys" - you haven't actually defined what you
mean. Most people would I think take it to mean the majority of
journeys that are made. You now appear to be backpeddling to justify
your earlier comments by defining it as meaning all possible journeys
between any two stations in London. OK, *if* that's the definition
you're using then yes, I'd think paper tickets are required for the
majority of them.

I'm sorry if it looked like backpedalling. That wasn't my intention. I
probably should've explained earlier what I meant.


At least for one off travel - but for daily commutes, I dare say a
fair number of people make use of season Travelcards as the NR leg is
part of a longer journey. (And season Travelcards that don't include
z1 are actually quite good value. And of course any season Travelcard
can be bought on Oyster.)

Ok. I keep forgeting about season Travelcards. Butthere's nothing
_specifically_ Oysterish since you can get them on paper like normal
point-to-point seasons.


Only if the "everything else" means travelling in the same zones
that you already use for your daily commute. No use at all for
heading in the opposite direction, getting away from the built up
areas and the crowds.

Agreed. But that hardly makes Oyster useless.

I'll have to take your word for that, since I don't have much experience
with Travelcard seasons.

Even when I worked in central London, the offices were all in walking
distance of either Victoria, Blackfriars or London Bridge so a simple
point-to-point to London Terminals did the job. In fact, the last time
I used a Travelcard season was nearly 20 years ago!

Still I suppose there must be people who find Travelcard seasons useful
for their journeys. But if my experience is anything like typical,
there can't be that many of them.

(And any Travelcard is good for any London bus.)


I already admited Oyster is good for buses.


I use London
Overground a lot too which has obviously accepted pre-pay for
a good few years.

Which might be handy one day, but for now Overground is
completely useless for most journeys, since there's hardly
anything of it south of the river. So there's still the need
for a paper ticket to/from Clapham Junction to connect with it.

Overground is completely useless for most journeys? WTF are you
talking about?

There are lots and lots of places in London that are not served by
London Overground. London Overground is no use for nearly all the
possible journeys between these places. I don't see how I can put it
simpler than that.

OK, so your "most journey" definition does now appear to be "all
possible journeys between any two stations in London". Thanks for
clearing that up.


"Now?" It was that all along!

The Oystercard is magnificent north of the river.

Except if you're going to Ilford, obviously.

Or to Enfield or Alexandra Palace or Chingford or Elstree or New
Barnet or Romford or Hendon (by Thameslink, not Northern line) or
Gordon Hill or Turkey Street, all of which are "north of the river"
places I've caught trains to over the past few years (mostly as a
result of walking the various stretches of the London Loop and
Capital Ring).

So it's more accurate to say that Oyster is only "magnificent" in a
very few areas north of the river, but not in most of the places
that I actually want to go to.

You'll notice that on the few occasions when I did switch from all
possible journeys to examples of journeys that were actually made, I did
make it very clear that's what I was doing.


Balls. It's useful (aka "magnificent) in a *great many* areas north of
the river. But it's all about you of course.


Well, I can only draw on my own experience for examples.


I appreciate that
mainline, south of the river doesn't have the best coverage for
Oyster, but it's coming, and before long, all the TOCs in London
will move into the 21st century and accept it

True, but I'm not talking about some hypothetical future situation.
But the real situation on the ground over the past few years.
You're the one that brought up the subject of the past few years.
Don't try to wriggle out of it by jumping forwards in time .

And then what will you have to rant about?


Hopefully nothing. But unfortunately, there'll probably be something.
Public transport always goes out of it's way to be as crap as possible.


Yes, but just because it isn't useful for you hardly makes it a "white
elephant", as you said elsewhere. Unless the world revolves around
you. In which case we must redraw the solar system.

Why do you think I call myself the _solar_ penguin?