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[email protected] · August 12th 09, 12:44 AM posted to uk.transport.london

In article
,
(John B) wrote:

On Aug 11, 6:25*pm, MIG wrote:
On 11 Aug, 18:14, John B wrote:

On Aug 11, 6:08*pm, Roland Perry wrote:

In message
,
at 09:56:28 on Tue, 11 Aug 2009, martin
remarked:

Walking past Alexandra Palace station this afternoon, I noticed
that the standalone Oyster reader (on the pavement, next to the
outdoor ticket machine) has had its neoprene jacket removed,
a nd was inviting passengers to touch in or out of the station,
and had an orange LED lit.

I can't see any mention on the TfL or First Capital Connect
website that PAYG is now valid from this station - does the
working reader mean that it probably is, but they've just not
told anyone about it yet?

Why does it have to active for PAYG, what about only for
travelcards on Oyster? (Or does the presence of an Oyster
reader *always* mean PAYG is allowed?)

a) Travelcard users don't need to touch in, so providing a
touch-point for them (other than to get through barriers) would be
pointless.

Unless they are extending their journey beyond their zone on another
side of London ...

Good point. I've been caught out like that (luckily in an 'oops,
sorry' way, rather than a 'gbp20 fine' way) at LHR, having not touched
in my Z12 at Finsbury Park when I lived there.

But they don't provide such readers at all the other ungated stations
where travelcards are valid. *Maybe it's a special case because PAYG
is accepted on parts of FCC?

I'm sure it's *there* in preparation for PAYG being enabled for NR.

Why it's been switched on already is a harder ask (my top 3 options
are mistake, testing, and FCC having come to an agreement earlier than
the south-of-river TOCs which they'll announce shortly).

In the meantime, we need a guinea pig with a PAYG card and no
Travelcard loaded to touch in and see what happens...

I'm going to Hornsey on Wednesday afternoon (after work) but I'm
definitely not experimenting on this one! I shall get an off-peak day
travelcard from Cambridge.

--
Colin Rosenstiel