On Mar 2, 11:40*am, Mizter T wrote:
On 02/03/2012 09:36, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 09:20:29 on Fri, 2
Mar 2012, Walter Briscoe remarked:
Neither Marlow nor Maidenhead is in the Oyster area.
I trust Crossrail will alter that for those who live so long.

Wonkypedia says it will, but without any citations to back it up.

Another reason why specifying Reading as the initial western terminus
might have been a "touch too far".

I don't think a ticketing system will drive the decision as to where
Crossrail will terminate at all.

The Crossrail service will be run by TfL, perhaps on a concession basis
a la London Overground - when LO started (when TfL took over
responsibility for the old Silverlink Metro routes), TfL implemented
Oyster PAYG across the whole LO network including to Watford Junction -
(outside of Greater London, and outside TfL's zone 9).

London Midland is responsible for setting fares to/from WJ, and
initially Oyster PAYG was effectively an LO-only ticket to/from WJ - the
problem being that there were shared LM and LO gatelines at WJ and
Euston, so the only way to enforce this was on-train ticket checks.

This basically forced LM's hand to accept Oyster PAYG to/from WJ on
their own services - they did so after a week or two, and now Oyster
PAYG fares to/from WJ are I think essentially set by LM (or at least in
conjunction with them), rather than being set by TfL.

More likely due to DfT not considering the possibility that Oyster
acceptance would be needed when drawing up the franchise
specification. LM are certainly involved in the much high pricing for
Oyster from Watford Junction and for people in certain parts of
Watford Bushey is a bit cheaper (TfL setting the fares) at the cost of
having a lower frequency.


I imagine a large reason for this rather less than ideal (albeit very
short lived) situation was that London Midland was itself a brand new
franchisee, taking over Silverlink County services at the same time as
TfL took over Silverlink Metro services.


Also adding to the pressure on London Midland, at the time, was
Southern taking Oyster from day one on the Watford - Croydon route. So
London Midland had to allow Oyster users to access the same platforms.
Without Oyster readers for on-train staff, it would have been very
difficult to catch all the passengers on a stopping LM Euston train as
Oyster was already valid from Harrow.

Point being, if Crossrail's going to Reading, then TfL will take Oyster
PAYG acceptance with it there - and the GWML operator will have to
accept Oyster PAYG to/from Reading. (Apart from anything else I'd be
pretty sure that DfT Rail would make this a franchise commitment.)


It may be possible to have the Intercity services priced differently
to the local Crossrail services and then there would be no reason for
the GWML operator to take Oyster, assuming Crossrail takes over all
the services on the relief lines. The Intercity services already have
different peak hour validity, which causes peak hour crowding the the
slower trains which use the relief lines for part of their journey.