LT museum - can't pay with Oyster
 

Took a relative to the LT museum in covent garden on the w/e. They looked
a bit bemused when I asked why couldn't I pay using my Oyster card. Given
TfL seem to want to promote Oyster as electronic cash wouldn't this be
a logical place to start? They could even have proper station gates at the
entrance to let oyster holders through so they don't have to queue and make
the gates part of the exhibits at the same time. An opportunity missed I
think.

B2003

LT museum - can't pay with Oyster
 

"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 8 Apr 2012 20:52:34 +0000 (UTC), d
wrote:

Took a relative to the LT museum in covent garden on the w/e. They looked
a bit bemused when I asked why couldn't I pay using my Oyster card. Given
TfL seem to want to promote Oyster as electronic cash wouldn't this be
a logical place to start? They could even have proper station gates at the
entrance to let oyster holders through so they don't have to queue and
make
the gates part of the exhibits at the same time. An opportunity missed I
think.

Except that your museum ticket entitles you to free re-entry to the
museum for a year. Oyster doesn't have that capability.
--
Paul C

Well yes, but the problem isn't insoluble. It may be daft but the gate (or
a separate machine just inside) could produce a receipt/ticket for re-entry
(the "fare" would be on a PAYG basis) and if you used a variant of the gates
that have appeared at Kings X that have card readers, magnetic stripe
readers and bar code readers I'm certain the "separate printer" could be
made to produce one of those three formats.

I've no doubt that there are other problems to resolve related to back
office accounting but again, none of it is insoluble.

What's the real problem? Naysayers and a lack of will? No, money.

LT museum - can't pay with Oyster
 

On 08/04/2012 23:04, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Sun, 8 Apr 2012 20:52:34 +0000 (UTC), d
wrote:

Took a relative to the LT museum in covent garden on the w/e. They looked
a bit bemused when I asked why couldn't I pay using my Oyster card. Given
TfL seem to want to promote Oyster as electronic cash wouldn't this be
a logical place to start? They could even have proper station gates at the
entrance to let oyster holders through so they don't have to queue and make
the gates part of the exhibits at the same time. An opportunity missed I
think.

Except that your museum ticket entitles you to free re-entry to the
museum for a year. Oyster doesn't have that capability.

What next, expecting to pay with Oyster on the Acton Miniature Railway?!
(Yes we have had customers ask that, in all seriousness! :-))

LT museum - can't pay with Oyster
 

On Sun, 08 Apr 2012 23:04:26 +0100, Paul Corfield wrote:

Except that your museum ticket entitles you to free re-entry to the
museum for a year. Oyster doesn't have that capability.

Surely the oyster has the ability to be loaded with a season ticket?

Rgds

Denis McMahon

LT museum - can't pay with Oyster
 

In message , at 23:04:26 on
Sun, 8 Apr 2012, Paul Corfield remarked:
Took a relative to the LT museum in covent garden on the w/e. They looked
a bit bemused when I asked why couldn't I pay using my Oyster card. Given
TfL seem to want to promote Oyster as electronic cash wouldn't this be
a logical place to start? They could even have proper station gates at the
entrance to let oyster holders through so they don't have to queue and make
the gates part of the exhibits at the same time. An opportunity missed I
think.

Except that your museum ticket entitles you to free re-entry to the
museum for a year. Oyster doesn't have that capability.

There's a cheaper day-rate (£8), although it's only for groups.

I think the main issue is that the Oyster card is *not* e-money, which
would have to be regulated by the FSA.

There was an inconclusive discussion here (or another newsgroup)
recently why the LT Museum would be taking e-money from the card (which
I'm postulating is not allowed), whereas National Rail are taking
"fares" (which does seem to be allowed).
--
Roland Perry

LT museum - can't pay with Oyster
 

I think the main issue is that the Oyster card is *not* e-money, which
would have to be regulated by the FSA.


Plus perhaps competition issues. After all, the LT Museum is a charity
separate from TfL. So if the museum was allowed to use Oyster cards as
e-money then why not the Tower of London? Covent Garden Market traders?
or the Big Issue seller outside the tube station? (IIRC legislation was
needed to allow cooperation between operators to create the system as
that wd otherwise have breached competition law.)
--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid

LT museum - can't pay with Oyster
 

On Sun, 08 Apr 2012 23:04:26 +0100
Paul Corfield wrote:
On Sun, 8 Apr 2012 20:52:34 +0000 (UTC), d
wrote:

Took a relative to the LT museum in covent garden on the w/e. They looked
a bit bemused when I asked why couldn't I pay using my Oyster card. Given
TfL seem to want to promote Oyster as electronic cash wouldn't this be
a logical place to start? They could even have proper station gates at the
entrance to let oyster holders through so they don't have to queue and make
the gates part of the exhibits at the same time. An opportunity missed I
think.

Except that your museum ticket entitles you to free re-entry to the
museum for a year. Oyster doesn't have that capability.

Whats a seaon ticket then? Anyway , they could always do a PAYG style of
entry that costs less than a full year ticket.

On a side note - for the price of 13.50 the museum itself is less than
impressive especially compared to the free Science Museum. A few more railway
exhibits and a few less buses would be a good start.

B2003

LT museum - can't pay with Oyster
 

On Mon, 9 Apr 2012 09:02:33 +0100
"Robin" wrote:
Plus perhaps competition issues. After all, the LT Museum is a charity
separate from TfL.

When did that happen? I thought it was owned by LT then TfL.

B2003

LT museum - can't pay with Oyster
 

wrote in message
...
Took a relative to the LT museum in covent garden on the w/e. They looked
a bit bemused when I asked why couldn't I pay using my Oyster card. Given
TfL seem to want to promote Oyster as electronic cash wouldn't this be
a logical place to start? They could even have proper station gates at the
entrance to let oyster holders through so they don't have to queue and
make
the gates part of the exhibits at the same time. An opportunity missed I
think.

B2003


There might be the "small" matter of the cost of the gates. Doubtless
someone more informed can put an actual price on this, but my recollection
is that each Oyster gate costs several tens of thousands of pounds, which
might not be the best investment, particularly at the moment. Having said
that, I seem to recall that when the Victoria line was opened in 1969 some
form of the "new" gates were used at the Clapham transport museum to gain
entrance. However I am not sure that these were the full monty - possibly a
simplified mock up.

LT museum - can't pay with Oyster
 

The New York Transit Museum allows -- or did allow -- one to pay their
entrance with a subway token.

Don't know what it is now, since they have discontinued tokens.

LT museum - can't pay with Oyster
 

In message , at
10:58:07 on Mon, 9 Apr 2012, J Lynch
remarked:
I seem to recall that when the Victoria line was opened in 1969 some
form of the "new" gates were used at the Clapham transport museum to gain
entrance. However I am not sure that these were the full monty - possibly a
simplified mock up.

Somewhere I think I've got one of the tickets they used to sell. And you
are right about the mechanism - in practice all it would need to do is
accept a correctly-sized bit of card.

Either there, or maybe in Covent Garden later, they had a cutaway model
of one of the Victoria Line ticket readers, showing how it flipped the
ticket internally so it could be read properly, whichever orientation it
was presented by the passenger.
--
Roland Perry

LT museum - can't pay with Oyster
 

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

Either there, or maybe in Covent Garden later, they had a cutaway
model of one of the Victoria Line ticket readers, showing how it
flipped the ticket internally so it could be read properly, whichever
orientation it was presented by the passenger.

Whereas nowadays the data density on the card should be more than enough to
make it readable in any orientation.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

LT museum - can't pay with Oyster
 

Plus perhaps competition issues. After all, the LT Museum is a
charity separate from TfL.

When did that happen? I thought it was owned by LT then TfL.

Yes and no. The museum was set up as a separate charitable company and
assets transferred in , I think, 2008*. But the company is wholly owned
by TfL's trading company.

*checks on the wotsit: seems so from eg
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...tructuring.pdf
--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid

LT museum - can't pay with Oyster
 

In message , at 06:54:30
on Mon, 9 Apr 2012, remarked:
Either there, or maybe in Covent Garden later, they had a cutaway
model of one of the Victoria Line ticket readers, showing how it
flipped the ticket internally so it could be read properly, whichever
orientation it was presented by the passenger.

Whereas nowadays the data density on the card should be more than enough to
make it readable in any orientation.

More to do with the cost (in those days) of having read heads both sides
of the ticket path and enough computer power to decode a ticket going
through backwards.
--
Roland Perry

LT museum - can't pay with Oyster
 

On 08/04/2012 21:52, d wrote:
Took a relative to the LT museum in covent garden on the w/e. They looked
a bit bemused when I asked why couldn't I pay using my Oyster card. Given
TfL seem to want to promote Oyster as electronic cash wouldn't this be
a logical place to start? They could even have proper station gates at the
entrance to let oyster holders through so they don't have to queue and make
the gates part of the exhibits at the same time. An opportunity missed I
think.

At one point you certainly *could* pay for admission to the LT Museum
using Oyster...not that I ever made use of the facility, being a member
of the Friends. Seems to have stopped with the last big redisplay project.

Cheers,

Barry

LT museum - can't pay with Oyster
 

In message , at 11:54:54 on Mon, 9 Apr
2012, Roland Perry remarked:
I seem to recall that when the Victoria line was opened in 1969 some
form of the "new" gates were used at the Clapham transport museum to gain
entrance. However I am not sure that these were the full monty - possibly a
simplified mock up.

Somewhere I think I've got one of the tickets they used to sell. And
you are right about the mechanism - in practice all it would need to do
is accept a correctly-sized bit of card.

Either there, or maybe in Covent Garden later, they had a cutaway model
of one of the Victoria Line ticket readers, showing how it flipped the
ticket internally so it could be read properly, whichever orientation
it was presented by the passenger.

I was conflating a few things there, and now I've found the tickets.

Classic cardboard ones for the Clapham museum (not sure why the
different colours, and what does "Clapham Cl" stand for?)

And a special exhibition at the Science Museum, where you were given an
"Underground Ticket of the Future" (with magnetic stripe covering the
whole of the rear side) which you could put through the mock-up gates I
mentioned above.

http://yfrog.com/hws5gfj
--
Roland Perry

LT museum - can't pay with Oyster
 

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 11:54:54 on Mon, 9 Apr 2012,
Roland Perry remarked:
I seem to recall that when the Victoria line was opened in 1969 some
form of the "new" gates were used at the Clapham transport museum to gain
entrance. However I am not sure that these were the full monty - possibly
a
simplified mock up.

Somewhere I think I've got one of the tickets they used to sell. And you
are right about the mechanism - in practice all it would need to do is
accept a correctly-sized bit of card.

Either there, or maybe in Covent Garden later, they had a cutaway model of
one of the Victoria Line ticket readers, showing how it flipped the ticket
internally so it could be read properly, whichever orientation it was
presented by the passenger.

I was conflating a few things there, and now I've found the tickets.

Classic cardboard ones for the Clapham museum (not sure why the different
colours, and what does "Clapham Cl" stand for?)

And a special exhibition at the Science Museum, where you were given an
"Underground Ticket of the Future" (with magnetic stripe covering the
whole of the rear side) which you could put through the mock-up gates I
mentioned above.

You know you're getting old when the "predicted" future has come .... and
gone again

tim