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Tunbridge Wells
Charles Ellson wrote:
On Sun, 03 Aug 2014 11:17:23 -0500, Recliner wrote: Paul Corfield wrote: On Sun, 3 Aug 2014 07:56:16 +0100, Roland Perry wrote: In message , at 06:17:35 on Sun, 3 Aug 2014, Charles Ellson remarked: Can you use your Oyster card for Pay-as-You-Go from London Bridge to Tundbridge Wells? Definitely not. Not according to anything I can see on the NR website (assuming it is up to date). There doesn't seem to be anything definite announced since e.g. "A spokesman for Southeastern confirmed: ?We?re in discussions with Transport for London to extend Oyster into Dartford." [Kent Online 21 Feb 2014] Tunbridge Wells being even further away from Greater London and AFAIAA with a lower thicko count (Dartford seems to have a particular problem with people unaware that Oyster has geographical limits) might not be so far up the list for providing Oyster. The problem with extending Oyster is that it has a very finite number of price-zones and it's possible these were exhausted when extended to Shenfield. I asked TfL's ticketing people, via a Twitter "chat" session, if they would technically cope with the indicated TSGN franchise plans to extent Oyster beyond the zones. They said they could. Unfortunately I can't send you a technical specification to prove this so I imagine my statement will go on your vapourware list of probably untrue nonsense ;-) This suggests there is some system capacity left but I imagine there may also be assumptions about pricing and keeping stations priced on a consistent basis outside the zones. If Oyster PAYG is to extend to Dartford that will solve a great many problems although it might reduce South Eastern's penalty fare income. It's hardly likely to be a huge problem given Oyster based Freedom Passes *are* valid to Dartford so there must be some ticketing logic in the system that allows those cards to be read (I assuming the gates at Dartford *do* read them - happy to be corrected if actual practice is different). I don't think the gates at Dartford do read Freedom passes. After the gate wouldn't read it, I had to show mine to a person, who let me through. Roughly comparable to 65+ bus passes used away from their home area ? I see that 60+ Oyster cards are also valid to/via Dartford. I think that the 60+ cards have exactly the same benefits as Freedom passes in the London area, including to places like Dartford just outside the zones. What they don't get is the buses away from London. And, of course, you don't (yet) have to be 65 to get a national bus pass. |
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Tunbridge Wells
On Sun, 03 Aug 2014 15:25:39 -0500, Recliner
wrote: Charles Ellson wrote: On Sun, 03 Aug 2014 11:17:23 -0500, Recliner wrote: Paul Corfield wrote: On Sun, 3 Aug 2014 07:56:16 +0100, Roland Perry wrote: In message , at 06:17:35 on Sun, 3 Aug 2014, Charles Ellson remarked: Can you use your Oyster card for Pay-as-You-Go from London Bridge to Tundbridge Wells? Definitely not. Not according to anything I can see on the NR website (assuming it is up to date). There doesn't seem to be anything definite announced since e.g. "A spokesman for Southeastern confirmed: ?We?re in discussions with Transport for London to extend Oyster into Dartford." [Kent Online 21 Feb 2014] Tunbridge Wells being even further away from Greater London and AFAIAA with a lower thicko count (Dartford seems to have a particular problem with people unaware that Oyster has geographical limits) might not be so far up the list for providing Oyster. The problem with extending Oyster is that it has a very finite number of price-zones and it's possible these were exhausted when extended to Shenfield. I asked TfL's ticketing people, via a Twitter "chat" session, if they would technically cope with the indicated TSGN franchise plans to extent Oyster beyond the zones. They said they could. Unfortunately I can't send you a technical specification to prove this so I imagine my statement will go on your vapourware list of probably untrue nonsense ;-) This suggests there is some system capacity left but I imagine there may also be assumptions about pricing and keeping stations priced on a consistent basis outside the zones. If Oyster PAYG is to extend to Dartford that will solve a great many problems although it might reduce South Eastern's penalty fare income. It's hardly likely to be a huge problem given Oyster based Freedom Passes *are* valid to Dartford so there must be some ticketing logic in the system that allows those cards to be read (I assuming the gates at Dartford *do* read them - happy to be corrected if actual practice is different). I don't think the gates at Dartford do read Freedom passes. After the gate wouldn't read it, I had to show mine to a person, who let me through. Roughly comparable to 65+ bus passes used away from their home area ? I see that 60+ Oyster cards are also valid to/via Dartford. I think that the 60+ cards have exactly the same benefits as Freedom passes in the London area, including to places like Dartford just outside the zones. They won't inevitably be valid on all non-TfL local buses running in to Greater London. TfL seem to have lost the "exceptions" list from their website but as well as non-TfL contracted routes within GL which accepted Oyster and/or Travelcards there were a few (no more than a couple of dozen IIRC) others specifically listed as unavailable (presumably those paralleled by a TfL service). You could have a section of a bus route where a 60+ card is invalid but a Freedom Pass is because it provides ENCTS entitlement. What they don't get is the buses away from London. And, of course, you don't (yet) have to be 65 to get a national bus pass. |
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