On Sat, 14 Jun 2014 13:06:00 +0100, Mizter T
wrote:

(An aside - the N9 bus could be particularly troublesome for visitors
when buses go cashless next month - the least that's needed is a 24/7
Oyster vending arrangement at Heathrow's T5 and central bus station.)

I was at Heathrow last week for my usual X26 and it was minor chaos
even *with* tickets sold on the bus... It's Heathrow that needed to
be cashless first, with proper ticket sales at the underground and bus
stations, and usable machines at the bus stops, for the many people
who arrive with no coins. You could make a similar, but less clear
case for some of the London terminals.

While cashless should work everywhere else in London, Heathrow is
going to be interesting (I'll find out two days after introduction)
and it seems to me that areas outside Greater London, far from
Palestra, will have less public troubles.

Meanwhile, I await the better software on the Underground machines,
that can't even provide a Travelcard starting tomorrow, instead
offering me two identical products with different past expiry dates
(irrelevant for a new purchase) because that's what was found on my
Oyster card.

Richard.