Ran out of credit on my prepay oyster this morning, so I was faced with
a 10 minute queue to one of 2 machines that can do topups at Oxford
Circus. Almost everyone else in the queue was topping up.

There were 8 unused cash ticket machines. What a waste of space, why
haven't the majority (or all) of these been converted to card/oyster
machines? Is it a deliberate decision to raise more money from those in
a rush?

Ran out of credit on my prepay oyster this morning, so I was faced with
a 10 minute queue to one of 2 machines that can do topups at Oxford
Circus. Almost everyone else in the queue was topping up.

There were 8 unused cash ticket machines. What a waste of space, why
haven't the majority (or all) of these been converted to card/oyster
machines? Is it a deliberate decision to raise more money from those in
a rush?

Or is it a deliberate decision to encourage you to sign up for auto top up?

In article ,
(tkd) wrote:

Ran out of credit on my prepay oyster this morning, so I was
faced with a 10 minute queue to one of 2 machines that can do topups
at Oxford Circus. Almost everyone else in the queue was topping up.

There were 8 unused cash ticket machines. What a waste of space,
why haven't the majority (or all) of these been converted to
card/oyster machines? Is it a deliberate decision to raise more
money from those in a rush?

Or is it a deliberate decision to encourage you to sign up for auto
top up?

For those of us living outside London auto-top-up is impossible. I don't
know which tube station I will use next for the rare occasions I use my
Oyster card. Since I have no desire to lend TfL any more money at no
interest than absolutely necessary I buy top-up as I use it only,
keeping a minimum £1.50 balance so I can always start a journey if I
can't get top-up at the station I do arrive at.

Why auto or web top-up can't just work at the tube gate that next sees
the card (I realise it might be asking too much for buses to do this) I
don't know.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On Fri, 15 Sep 2006 00:57 +0100 (BST), (Colin
Rosenstiel) wrote:

In article ,
(tkd) wrote:

Ran out of credit on my prepay oyster this morning, so I was
faced with a 10 minute queue to one of 2 machines that can do topups
at Oxford Circus. Almost everyone else in the queue was topping up.

There were 8 unused cash ticket machines. What a waste of space,
why haven't the majority (or all) of these been converted to
card/oyster machines? Is it a deliberate decision to raise more
money from those in a rush?

Or is it a deliberate decision to encourage you to sign up for auto
top up?

For those of us living outside London auto-top-up is impossible. I don't
know which tube station I will use next for the rare occasions I use my
Oyster card. Since I have no desire to lend TfL any more money at no
interest than absolutely necessary I buy top-up as I use it only,
keeping a minimum £1.50 balance so I can always start a journey if I
can't get top-up at the station I do arrive at.

Why auto or web top-up can't just work at the tube gate that next sees
the card (I realise it might be asking too much for buses to do this) I
don't know.

It does work at any tube gate, and buses now too. I think it is just
the very first auto topup instruction that needs to be done at a
nominated station, presumably because there is more data to be
transmitted to the card, and if they had all oyster readers
network-wide looking out for all cards needing this special data
transfer, the whole system would be that much slower, perhaps
unworkable. By keeping a more manageable list of cards needing any
rare "special update" operations at individual stations, the whole
system can run more efficiently.

I don't think it's particularly onerous to have to collect the first
auto-top up instruction from a particular nominated station.

In article ,
(Peter Frimberley) wrote:

On Fri, 15 Sep 2006 00:57 +0100 (BST), (Colin
Rosenstiel) wrote:

In article ,
(tkd) wrote:

Ran out of credit on my prepay oyster this morning, so I was
faced with a 10 minute queue to one of 2 machines that can do
topups at Oxford Circus. Almost everyone else in the queue was
topping up.

There were 8 unused cash ticket machines. What a waste of
space, why haven't the majority (or all) of these been
converted to card/oyster machines? Is it a deliberate decision
to raise more money from those in a rush?

Or is it a deliberate decision to encourage you to sign up for
auto top up?
For those of us living outside London auto-top-up is impossible. I
don't know which tube station I will use next for the rare
occasions I use my Oyster card. Since I have no desire to lend TfL
any more money at no interest than absolutely necessary I buy
top-up as I use it only, keeping a minimum £1.50 balance so I can
always start a journey if I can't get top-up at the station I do
arrive at.

Why auto or web top-up can't just work at the tube gate that next
sees the card (I realise it might be asking too much for buses to
do this) I don't know.

It does work at any tube gate, and buses now too. I think it is just
the very first auto topup instruction that needs to be done at a
nominated station, presumably because there is more data to be
transmitted to the card, and if they had all oyster readers
network-wide looking out for all cards needing this special data
transfer, the whole system would be that much slower, perhaps
unworkable. By keeping a more manageable list of cards needing any
rare "special update" operations at individual stations, the whole
system can run more efficiently.

I don't think it's particularly onerous to have to collect the first
auto-top up instruction from a particular nominated station.

I don't want auto-top-up unless they pay me interest for all the money
spent that I won't use for months. But internet top-up might be useful
if I knew where I was going next. What you can't do AIUI is top up a
card without using it at the same time.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

"Colin Rosenstiel" wrote in message
...

It does work at any tube gate, and buses now too. I think it is just
the very first auto topup instruction that needs to be done at a
nominated station, presumably because there is more data to be
transmitted to the card, and if they had all oyster readers
network-wide looking out for all cards needing this special data
transfer, the whole system would be that much slower, perhaps
unworkable. By keeping a more manageable list of cards needing any
rare "special update" operations at individual stations, the whole
system can run more efficiently.

I don't think it's particularly onerous to have to collect the first
auto-top up instruction from a particular nominated station.

I don't want auto-top-up unless they pay me interest for all the money
spent that I won't use for months. But internet top-up might be useful
if I knew where I was going next. What you can't do AIUI is top up a
card without using it at the same time.

Surely the 50p interest a year that you might lose is more than outweighed
by the time saved by not having to queue up at ticket machines every
journey?

Peter Smyth

On Fri, 15 Sep 2006 19:15 +0100 (BST), (Colin
Rosenstiel) wrote:

I don't want auto-top-up unless they pay me interest for all the money
spent that I won't use for months. But internet top-up might be useful
if I knew where I was going next. What you can't do AIUI is top up a
card without using it at the same time.

Even if your Oyster balance across a year was a whole £10, the
interest you're missing out on is measurable in pennies (considerably
fewer than 50 of said pennies, even with a decent high interest
savings account). You could not even buy a Mars Bar with the money
you're talking about.

If half a Mars Bar is more important to you than a whole year's
ticketing convenience, I guess there is no helping you.

Bizarre.

On 29 Aug 2006 11:02:55 -0700, "Paul Weaver"
wrote:

Ran out of credit on my prepay oyster this morning, so I was faced with
a 10 minute queue to one of 2 machines that can do topups at Oxford
Circus. Almost everyone else in the queue was topping up.

There were 8 unused cash ticket machines. What a waste of space, why
haven't the majority (or all) of these been converted to card/oyster
machines? Is it a deliberate decision to raise more money from those in
a rush?

They did announce a new type of ticket machine a few weeks ago that
will fit into many of these spaces. You expect them to do it
overnight?

Why don't you just register for auto-topup and avoid the problem
altogether?

Peter Frimberley wrote:
On 29 Aug 2006 11:02:55 -0700, "Paul Weaver"
wrote:

Ran out of credit on my prepay oyster this morning, so I was faced with
a 10 minute queue to one of 2 machines that can do topups at Oxford
Circus. Almost everyone else in the queue was topping up.

There were 8 unused cash ticket machines. What a waste of space, why
haven't the majority (or all) of these been converted to card/oyster
machines? Is it a deliberate decision to raise more money from those in
a rush?

They did announce a new type of ticket machine a few weeks ago that
will fit into many of these spaces. You expect them to do it
overnight?

Oyster was launched in 2003, and the ridiculous cash prices were
launched 8 months ago. It's either malaice or incompetence. They should
have known that once prices were half-price on oyster, hardly anyone
would buy cash tickets, and have had drop in machines designed and
ready to slowly take over.

Why don't you just register for auto-topup and avoid the problem
altogether?

Because that involves registering my oyster and tying it with a credit
card, rather than anonymous cash top-ups.

Peter Frimberley wrote:


Why don't you just register for auto-topup and avoid the problem
altogether?

I don't believe it works. I've tried various online things so far
(buying a new ticket, buying new credit...) and none of them have
worked. Station staff have told me they often don't and not to bother
with Oyster online.

It sounds like a really rubbish system with little thought gone into
it.

Francis