London Travelwatch on OEPs
 

On Feb 5, 4:26*pm, wrote:

(Mizter T) wrote:
I should add, I'm not planning on traipsing round the railways of
London actively looking for a confrontation! Just that, I wouldn't let
the lack of an OEP deter me from travelling at all. The problem is, of
course, that the blurb says an OEP must be obtained before travelling,
so it puts people who're trying to do the right thing in an awkward
position - but I'd have no qualms about travelling should an OEP not
be obtainable from my starting station (if there was a newsagents
directly next to the station then maybe, I might get one - but if I
wasn't buying anything else it'd feel a bit weird to go in there to
ask for a 'free' ticket, though I suppose along with people coming in
to check their Oyster PAYG balance and not buying anything it could be
said to be part of the quid-pro-quo when you agree to retail Oyster
products, given the number of people it does bring through the door).

I'm still struggling to envisage a typical journey which both requires an
OEP and starts at an NR station.

Really? You said something similar in another thread. In that case I
think you're being completely devoid of any imagination, to be blunt!

Ok, Forest Hill (z3) to East Croydon (z5) - pax holds a z1-3
Travelcard for their commute into town (train to London Bridge then
Tube), but they want to go to Croydon to do some shopping.

Westcombe Park (z3) to Charing Cross (z1) - pax holds a z2&3
Travelcard for their commute to Canary Wharf (train and DLR), but they
want to head into town.

Putney (z2/3) to Richmond (z4) - pax holds a z1&2 Travelcard for their
commute into town (train to Waterloo then W&C line into the City), but
they want to go and have a walk and drink by the river.

I could go on, and on, and on, but I won't! There are a gazillion
examples.

(I'm wondering if you've got the wrong end of the stick on this OEP
business?)

London Travelwatch on OEPs
 

On Feb 5, 5:12*pm, MIG wrote:

On 5 Feb, 17:10, Mizter T wrote:

On Feb 5, 4:24*pm, Matthew Dickinson
wrote:

Another factor is that London Midland ticket machines have not been
upgraded to issue OEPs.

Do they handle Oyster at all?

The machines at Euston have Oyster pads ... are they LO or LM though?

LM. In which case I think we might be able to say that the Scheidt &
Bachmann ticket machines which are equipped to 'do' Oyster nonetheless
can't 'do' OEPs for whatever reason - Southeastern has S&B machines,
and whilst they too do Oyster they don't do OEPs (must confess that I
haven't presented one with an Oyster card loaded with a Travelcard on
it yet, so I suppose it could be an option that's hidden, but I have
my doubts it would work like that).

Just wondering if the rule is that Shere ticket machines (such as
Southern) do OEPs, S&B don't (yet)?

(If so, then it's also interesting that LO have got some of both
types, I think.)

London Travelwatch on OEPs
 

In message
,
Mizter T writes

The problem is, of
course, that the blurb says an OEP must be obtained before travelling,
so it puts people who're trying to do the right thing in an awkward
position - but I'd have no qualms about travelling should an OEP not
be obtainable from my starting station (if there was a newsagents
directly next to the station then maybe, I might get one - but if I
wasn't buying anything else it'd feel a bit weird to go in there to
ask for a 'free' ticket, though I suppose along with people coming in
to check their Oyster PAYG balance and not buying anything it could be
said to be part of the quid-pro-quo when you agree to retail Oyster
products, given the number of people it does bring through the door).

Our local convenience store is an Oyster Stop, and I've frequently seen
people popping in to check their PAYG balance - sometimes they purchase
a top-up, but often they just check it and leave. As you say, it's
something that Oyster retailers have come to expect.

Out of devilment, I asked the shop owner if he'd heard of an OEP - "Oh
yes, bloody useless things" was the reply! But he says that he gets one
or two requests a day for them, even though he's not particularly near a
station.
--
Paul Terry

London Travelwatch on OEPs
 

In message ,
writes

I'm still struggling to envisage a typical journey which both requires an
OEP and starts at an NR station.

Person who has a Z1/Z2 travelcard for the daily commute between Putney
and Waterloo, and who decides to use PAYG to go out to Richmond in Z4
after work one day ... or thousands of similar circumstances.
--
Paul Terry

London Travelwatch on OEPs
 

On Feb 5, 5:33*pm, Paul Terry wrote:

Mizter T wrote:
The problem is, of
course, that the blurb says an OEP must be obtained before travelling,
so it puts people who're trying to do the right thing in an awkward
position - but I'd have no qualms about travelling should an OEP not
be obtainable from my starting station (if there was a newsagents
directly next to the station then maybe, I might get one - but if I
wasn't buying anything else it'd feel a bit weird to go in there to
ask for a 'free' ticket, though I suppose along with people coming in
to check their Oyster PAYG balance and not buying anything it could be
said to be part of the quid-pro-quo when you agree to retail Oyster
products, given the number of people it does bring through the door).

Our local convenience store is an Oyster Stop, and I've frequently seen
people popping in to check their PAYG balance - sometimes they purchase
a top-up, but often they just check it and leave. As you say, it's
something that Oyster retailers have come to expect.

Yeah. It was easier when they still had the black or turquoise
machines that also printed tickets (Day Travelcards and the like), as
they had a customer facing display... [searches for image] ...like
this:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/resources/corp...ter-card-3.jpg

Now the new "Pearl" devices seem to plug into existing POS kit (unsure
of the details), and they don't have any customer facing display, so
the retailer does now have to verbally communicate to the the
(potential) customer what their balance/ pass expiry date is.


Out of devilment, I asked the shop owner if he'd heard of an OEP - "Oh
yes, bloody useless things" was the reply! But he says that he gets one
or two requests a day for them, even though he's not particularly near a
station.

Ha! I haven't asked my local shopkeepers about them yet, I'll do so if
there's a convenient moment. I guess those one or two people might be
setting out on a bus to get to a station. Or maybe they're just
testing the water!

London Travelwatch on OEPs
 

On Feb 5, 6:21*pm, Paul Corfield wrote:

On Fri, 5 Feb 2010 09:22:38 -0800 (PST), Mizter T
wrote:

(I'm wondering if you've got the wrong end of the stick on this OEP
business?)

I could always adapt the quiz that has been used in LUL as a "tester"
for staff to see if they understood all of the various issues relating
to Oyster on NR. *It covers a wide range of issues - I did it again
today and still only managed 11 out of 12! *I should really have got 12..

Might be fun to see how well people on the group understand the various
concepts.

Well, I'm game, I'm sure others are too. I'm dead curious to know what
it was that tripped you up... but don't tell us just that if you're
going to quiz us!

(I'm trying to think of obscure scenarios! A few obscure-ish ones come
to mind...)

London Travelwatch on OEPs
 

In message
,
Mizter T writes

On Feb 5, 5:33*pm, Paul Terry wrote:

Out of devilment, I asked the shop owner if he'd heard of an OEP - "Oh
yes, bloody useless things" was the reply! But he says that he gets one
or two requests a day for them, even though he's not particularly near a
station.

Ha! I haven't asked my local shopkeepers about them yet, I'll do so if
there's a convenient moment. I guess those one or two people might be
setting out on a bus to get to a station.

Almost certainly for the first part of their journey. The shop is next
to a stop with a fairly intensive bus service. At a guess, nearly half
of the passengers take a short ride to pick up SWT at Barnes (or
possibly Putney). Most of the rest transfer to LU at Hammersmith.
--
Paul Terry

London Travelwatch on OEPs
 

In message , Paul Corfield
writes

stalker mode

Upper Richmond Road?

stalker mode

Congrats :)

Although your observation has reminded me that quite a few people from
the same Oyster Stop take the alternative 209 service to Hammersmith
from Avondale Road (every 4 minutes in the rush hour, and every 6
minutes otherwise) which is only a short walk away.

We may not have a tube station here, but the bus services these days are
really superlative.
--
Paul Terry

London Travelwatch on OEPs
 

In article
,
(Mizter T) wrote:

I'm still struggling to envisage a typical journey which both requires
an OEP and starts at an NR station.

Really? You said something similar in another thread. In that case I
think you're being completely devoid of any imagination, to be blunt!

Ok, Forest Hill (z3) to East Croydon (z5) - pax holds a z1-3
Travelcard for their commute into town (train to London Bridge then
Tube), but they want to go to Croydon to do some shopping.

Westcombe Park (z3) to Charing Cross (z1) - pax holds a z2&3
Travelcard for their commute to Canary Wharf (train and DLR), but they
want to head into town.

Putney (z2/3) to Richmond (z4) - pax holds a z1&2 Travelcard for their
commute into town (train to Waterloo then W&C line into the City), but
they want to go and have a walk and drink by the river.

I could go on, and on, and on, but I won't! There are a gazillion
examples.

(I'm wondering if you've got the wrong end of the stick on this OEP
business?)

All the journeys I've seen before now were based on using the travelcard
season first, so in most cases starting in zone 1. I agree that if you
have a season to go one way and want to make a completely unrelated trip
in the other direction it would make sense.

I was thinking of a commuter making an after-work trip which would likely
bin in zone 1.

I hadn't thought of that sort of journey and agree. If I lived in Putney
and had a season to get to Westminster I could find getting an OEP to get
to Richmond a bit of a pain (though I now know the ticket stop on Putney
Hill near Putney Station quite well).

--
Colin Rosenstiel

London Travelwatch on OEPs
 

In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

On Fri, 5 Feb 2010 18:51:20 +0000, Paul Terry
wrote:

Almost certainly for the first part of their journey. The shop is next
to a stop with a fairly intensive bus service. At a guess, nearly half
of the passengers take a short ride to pick up SWT at Barnes (or
possibly Putney). Most of the rest transfer to LU at Hammersmith.

stalker mode

Upper Richmond Road?

stalker mode

It's a helluva long road to try stalking on, though!

--
Colin Rosenstiel