Dave Arquati wrote:
Expect "Oyster for Dummies" in the shops any time now....... ;-)

That's no fun. If there was a book explaining how Oyster works, what
would we all have to argue about?

The accuracy of the book, of course!

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

On 5 Apr 2006 01:39:18 -0700, "John B" wrote:

Dave Arquati wrote:
Expect "Oyster for Dummies" in the shops any time now....... ;-)

That's no fun. If there was a book explaining how Oyster works, what
would we all have to argue about?

The accuracy of the book, of course!

LOL!
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

On Wed, 05 Apr 2006 17:58:13 +0100, Paul Corfield
wrote:

On 5 Apr 2006 01:39:18 -0700, "John B" wrote:

Dave Arquati wrote:
Expect "Oyster for Dummies" in the shops any time now....... ;-)

That's no fun. If there was a book explaining how Oyster works, what
would we all have to argue about?

The accuracy of the book, of course!

LOL!

I got a free ride from Hammersmith to the West End on Thursday on a
No. 9 bus on which the Oyster reader wasn't working (I wanted to use
prepay). That was about 4pm. Remarkably, on the way home about 11pm,
the No. 9 I got home also had a defective Oyster reader so I got a
free ride home too!

Not sure if all No. 9 buses had defective Oyster readers that day or I
was just lucky to get the same one twice - but I don't think they were
the same bus because the first one had a Post-It note on the reader,
the second one had a brown parcel tape "X" across it.

Oyster prepay is great!

TKD wrote:
I hold a paper travelcard for zones 1-4 (issued at a national rail
station), and occasionally need to travel to zone 5. Until last
December I always paid the difference in cash before the journey, but
the penal hike of cash fares meant that I have now bought a pay as you
go oyster. At the time of purchase (at Victoria TfL enquiry office) I
asked how I should use it for a such a zone extension - if I touched in
at the start of the journey I would presumably be charged for the Z1-4
section for which I already hold a travelcard. Yet once on the train
there is no way to validate the ticket on passing into Z5. The reply
was to tell staff at my destination station who would then deduct the
correct amount from the card.

Well, yesterday I tried this for the first time, travelling to
Cockfosters. Staff there absolutely refused to deduct the correct
amount, saying I should put the whole journey on the oyster card. I
pointed out (politely) that I was following TfL advice, but that made
no difference. After about ten minutes arguing they let me through the
barrier (so I got a free ride), but this is clearly unsatisfactory.

How should I temporarily extend the range of a paper travelcard using
PAYG oyster?

You can't. You should buy your season ticket on Oyster if you want to use
Oyster PAYG for extensions. Paper tickets and Oyster PAYG extensions are
not intended to work together in the way you desire.


Non-Oyster Underground fares have been put up punitively, but if you
live near a National Rail station you don't have the option of Oyster
for your travelcard. Walking to the nearest place that you can get an
Oyster travelcard on the morning when you need to renew is not exactly
practical, although it may be practical to have some prepay credit on
your Oyster to use when needed.

So people who have to buy an extension ticket in advance are having
their fares put up to £3 or else have to break their journey to use
prepay.

This seems insane for a system that is supposed to make things simple
and convenient, and it's a shameful way to treat people who have
actually paid TfL in advance for their prepay.

MIG wrote:

Non-Oyster Underground fares have been put up punitively, but if you
live near a National Rail station you don't have the option of Oyster
for your travelcard. Walking to the nearest place that you can get an
Oyster travelcard on the morning when you need to renew is not exactly
practical, although it may be practical to have some prepay credit on
your Oyster to use when needed.

Aren't there the options to renew in advance/over the phone/online?

(Mind you the latter two weren't available for the student discounted Oyster
when I last tried to renew that way. I got a rude email from TfL whining on
about fraud prevention when these methods perform identical security checks
to turning up to the ticket hall in person or using the card in practice.
Contrast with National Rail who generally have no problems selling railcard
discounted tickets online or at machines...)

On Mon, 10 Apr 2006 01:46:01 +0100, "Tim Roll-Pickering"
wrote:

MIG wrote:

Non-Oyster Underground fares have been put up punitively, but if you
live near a National Rail station you don't have the option of Oyster
for your travelcard. Walking to the nearest place that you can get an
Oyster travelcard on the morning when you need to renew is not exactly
practical, although it may be practical to have some prepay credit on
your Oyster to use when needed.

Aren't there the options to renew in advance/over the phone/online?

Yes, although with the latter two, you have to nominate a Tube/DLR
station to collect the renewal from when you touch in, so it's not
much use if you don't start your journey at one.

However, there are over 2200 Oyster Ticket Stops (newsagents etc which
sell Oyster cards) in the capital, where you can renew your ticket. I
expect most people live within walking distance of at least one.

And the barriers warn you when your ticket is about to expire, which
helps you to remember to renew it in advance so you don't end up
having to renew it on the morning.

(Mind you the latter two weren't available for the student discounted Oyster
when I last tried to renew that way. I got a rude email from TfL whining on
about fraud prevention when these methods perform identical security checks
to turning up to the ticket hall in person or using the card in practice.
Contrast with National Rail who generally have no problems selling railcard
discounted tickets online or at machines...)

Yes, it's annoying that you can't buy Railcard discounted Travelcards
from Tube ticket machines, even when the ticket office is closed
(meaning you have to either pay the full price, or travel without a
ticket and hope you get treated sympathetically at your destination).

asdf wrote:

Aren't there the options to renew in advance/over the phone/online?

Yes, although with the latter two, you have to nominate a Tube/DLR
station to collect the renewal from when you touch in, so it's not
much use if you don't start your journey at one.

However, there are over 2200 Oyster Ticket Stops (newsagents etc which
sell Oyster cards) in the capital, where you can renew your ticket. I
expect most people live within walking distance of at least one.

How good are these at a) handling the discounts; and b) taking credit/debit
cards for huge sums in one go?

And the barriers warn you when your ticket is about to expire, which
helps you to remember to renew it in advance so you don't end up
having to renew it on the morning.

Yeah but one goes through the barriers so fast, especially in the peak
morning, that this often doesn't register with you. And of course someone
based at a National Rail station has a strong prospect of not having
barriers to go through when they return at the end of the day.

Yes, it's annoying that you can't buy Railcard discounted Travelcards
from Tube ticket machines, even when the ticket office is closed
(meaning you have to either pay the full price, or travel without a
ticket and hope you get treated sympathetically at your destination).

Can you get Railcard discounts on any tickets from tube stations then? The
information at them is utterly unclear.

"Tim Roll-Pickering" wrote in message
...
....
Contrast with National Rail who generally have no problems selling
railcard discounted tickets online or at machines...)

Yes, "generally", but it still annoys me that the machine at my SWT station
won't sell me during the week (off-peak) a Network card reduced fare that it
is happy to sell me at the weekend, even when the fare is above the £10
mid-week minimum.
--
David Biddulph

Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:
asdf wrote:

Aren't there the options to renew in advance/over the phone/online?

Yes, although with the latter two, you have to nominate a Tube/DLR
station to collect the renewal from when you touch in, so it's not
much use if you don't start your journey at one.

However, there are over 2200 Oyster Ticket Stops (newsagents etc which
sell Oyster cards) in the capital, where you can renew your ticket. I
expect most people live within walking distance of at least one.

How good are these at a) handling the discounts; and b) taking credit/debit
cards for huge sums in one go?

And the barriers warn you when your ticket is about to expire, which
helps you to remember to renew it in advance so you don't end up
having to renew it on the morning.

Yeah but one goes through the barriers so fast, especially in the peak
morning, that this often doesn't register with you. And of course someone
based at a National Rail station has a strong prospect of not having
barriers to go through when they return at the end of the day.


And the ticket office not being open at that time.

I can't be the only person who lives within walking distance of a
Ticket Stop which is in completely the opposite direction to the
nearest NR station, more than doubling the time it takes to get to the
station, if I remember to walk a different way that day. It may not be
the worst thing in history, but it is a significant reduction in
convenience.



Yes, it's annoying that you can't buy Railcard discounted Travelcards
from Tube ticket machines, even when the ticket office is closed
(meaning you have to either pay the full price, or travel without a
ticket and hope you get treated sympathetically at your destination).

Can you get Railcard discounts on any tickets from tube stations then? The
information at them is utterly unclear.

Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:
MIG wrote:

Non-Oyster Underground fares have been put up punitively, but if you
live near a National Rail station you don't have the option of Oyster
for your travelcard. Walking to the nearest place that you can get an
Oyster travelcard on the morning when you need to renew is not exactly
practical, although it may be practical to have some prepay credit on
your Oyster to use when needed.

Aren't there the options to renew in advance/over the phone/online?

(Mind you the latter two weren't available for the student discounted Oyster
when I last tried to renew that way. I got a rude email from TfL whining on
about fraud prevention when these methods perform identical security checks
to turning up to the ticket hall in person or using the card in practice.
Contrast with National Rail who generally have no problems selling railcard
discounted tickets online or at machines...)

....which is extremely odd, because the student entitlement is coded onto
the card - and that must be registered on the central database somewhere
(or at any rate, when the ticket gate comes to place the discount
travelcard onto the Oyster, it could refuse to do it if it doesn't find
the discount entitlement).

The TfL system is extremely secure in this respect, compared to National
Rail, where I could buy a railcard-discounted ticket and travel between
gated stations without needing to produce a railcard.

--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London