I've been thinking abot the Oyster card. I can see some of the major
benefits, lack of moving parts, no damage to ticket etc.

But I wonder if the primary reason for Oyster was to prevent dumbelling?

AFAICS It's impossible, on any Oyster card, to Dumbell a journey.

Anyone disagree?

--
Paul Cummins - Always a NetHead
Wasting Bandwidth since 1981

Paul Cummins wrote:
I've been thinking abot the Oyster card. I can see some of the major
benefits, lack of moving parts, no damage to ticket etc.

But I wonder if the primary reason for Oyster was to prevent
dumbelling?

AFAICS It's impossible, on any Oyster card, to Dumbell a journey.

Anyone disagree?

I suspect the primary purpose was to stop staff pilfering more than they
were getting in wages. When one station staff member died, they opened his
locker and found his pay packets (cash) going back years - he'd never needed
to take them home because he was pilfering more money than he and his wife
were able to spend.

--
We are the Strasbourg. Referendum is futile.

On 14 Feb, 15:58, "Basil Jet"
wrote:
Paul Cummins wrote:

When one station staff member died, they opened his
locker and found his pay packets (cash) going back years

Cash pay packets on the Underground.
Was this recently?

Paul Cummins wrote:
I've been thinking abot the Oyster card. I can see some of the major
benefits, lack of moving parts, no damage to ticket etc.

But I wonder if the primary reason for Oyster was to prevent dumbelling?

I don't know what you mean by dumbelling but I suspect a key driver was
the huge and worrying market driven by somewhat worrying characters past
the gates in the resale of one day travelcards.

I don't know if it was similarly considered but the absolute ease of
using an oystercard to board a night bus when somewhat inebriated is a
big selling point as well.

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

"Alex Ingram" wrote in message
...
Paul Cummins wrote:
I've been thinking abot the Oyster card. I can see some of the major
benefits, lack of moving parts, no damage to ticket etc.

But I wonder if the primary reason for Oyster was to prevent dumbelling?

I don't know what you mean by dumbelling

Buying a season ticket for the first two stations and the last two stations
of your journey and not buying a ticket for the middle bit.

Given the zonal aspect of LU fares, I doubt that it is much of a problem on
the underground. It's more "beneficial" for longer journeys on the
overground

tim

On 15 Feb, 11:20, "tim...." wrote:
"Alex Ingram" wrote in message

...

Paul Cummins wrote:
I've been thinking abot the Oyster card. I can see some of the major
benefits, lack of moving parts, no damage to ticket etc.

But I wonder if the primary reason for Oyster was to prevent dumbelling?

I don't know what you mean by dumbelling

Buying a season ticket for the first two stations and the last two stations
of your journey and not buying a ticket for the middle bit.

Given the zonal aspect of LU fares, I doubt that it is much of a problem on
the underground. *It's more "beneficial" for longer journeys on the
overground

A dumbbell on London Underground works in two ways.
With Oyster: the travelcard loaded on the card is for zones 2 & 3 (it
could be a weekly, a monthly or more). The customer does not touch in
at the station of ingress (eg Finsbury Park), travels through zone 1
and touches out at eg Stockwell. No fare is charged for zone 1. Oddly,
a £6 fare is not charged, as the travelcard is within its zones of
availability.

This is much more common with paper tickets, which nowadays can only
be bought from NR, but are valid on LUL.
A paper travelcard for zones 2 & 3 will operate the gates at eg Camden
Town and Tooting Broadway. The customer should buy a zone 1 extension
for every trip made through zone 1, but may fail to do so.

Paul Corfield wrote:


Sorry but that was not a factor. If it was then one day travelcards
would be available on Oyster cards - they aren't. Also PAYG Oyster
cards (with no season ticket or other discount entitlement) are
transferable anyway. If you wish to give your card to a perfect stranger
then feel free .....

Or not, as the case may be - we regularly swap Oysters between us, say
if my other half has been into town in the morning and I'm going out for
a beer in the evening, the likelihood of hitting the cap and getting
free journeys is a strong Oyster plus-point. It's perfectly legal, of
course, provided the Oyster isn't associated with a Photocard owing to
one of the concessions being on it.

Tom

On 15 Feb, 13:13, Offramp wrote:

A dumbbell on London Underground works in two ways.
With Oyster: the travelcard loaded on the card is for zones 2 & 3 (it
could be a weekly, a monthly or more). The customer does not touch in
at the station of ingress (eg Finsbury Park), travels through zone 1
and touches out at eg Stockwell. No fare is charged for zone 1....

I should have added, "...although the customer is liable to pay one."

On 14 Feb, 14:56, (Paul Cummins) wrote:

AFAICS It's impossible, on any Oyster card, to Dumbell a journey.

Anyone disagree?

Yes, I disagree. Dumbbells are frequent with Oyster cards. See the
post I made a bit earlier.

In article , tim....
on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 at 11:20:14 awoke
Nicholas from his slumbers and wrote

"Alex Ingram" wrote in message
...
Paul Cummins wrote:
I've been thinking abot the Oyster card. I can see some of the major
benefits, lack of moving parts, no damage to ticket etc.

But I wonder if the primary reason for Oyster was to prevent dumbelling?

I don't know what you mean by dumbelling

Buying a season ticket for the first two stations and the last two stations
of your journey and not buying a ticket for the middle bit.


Thank god for that. I had dumbelling as being legal, fetishist, wet and
not very nice (well not to my taste).

--
Nicholas David Richards -

"Où sont les neiges d'antan?"