On Aug 21, 9:39 am, Uncle Dave wrote:
1. I assume I can only validate my top up at one of the machines in
Waterloo as there none on the list for the bus stops outside?

If you buy credit online you can only collect it by touching in at a
tube, DLR or tram stop, and there's no way to do it without also
starting a journey. If you're starting a bus journey at Waterloo,
either have credit already or buy some at the tube station ticket
machines.

You might also like to investigate auto top-up, which allows you to
top up on buses, though not at will:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/oysteronline/5469.aspx

2. The TFL site says you have to pay for the bendy bus before you
get on, so how does that actually work with the Oyster card? Is there
a validator on the bus or at the stop or what? (In any case, it's
forty years since I was last on a London Bus - always used the tube
before - and things have probably changed a bit since then ;-)

Having an Oyster card with credit on it counts as having bought a
ticket. Touch it against the reader on the driver's ticket machine, or
on a bendy you're allowed to board through the rear doors, which have
their own validators on the poles inside. You only need to validate
when you get on, not when you get off.

U

--
http://londonconnections.blogspot.com/
A blog about transport projects in London

On Aug 21, 10:23 am, Mr Thant
wrote:
On Aug 21, 9:39 am, Uncle Dave wrote:

1. I assume I can only validate my top up at one of the machines in
Waterloo as there none on the list for the bus stops outside?

If you buy credit online you can only collect it by touching in at a
tube, DLR or tram stop, and there's no way to do it without also
starting a journey. If you're starting a bus journey at Waterloo,
either have credit already or buy some at the tube station ticket
machines.

Ah, right, that's what I was wondering. OK, rather than top up on-
line I'll buy some credit at the ticket machine - I'm not expecting to
travel often enough to warrant auto top up.

Thanks!

David

On Aug 21, 10:28 am, Uncle Dave wrote:

Ah, right, that's what I was wondering. OK, rather than top up on-
line I'll buy some credit at the ticket machine - I'm not expecting to
travel often enough to warrant auto top up.

In the event, I topped up online, but the options where you can
validate your top-up are limited and don't include buses. I chose the
underground at Waterloo which was where I arrived, went to the barrier
where the guy informed me that it probably wouldn't work and that the
barrier would open so I'd get charged for a journey. He was right so
I've now been charged for a journey I never made because I used the
bus.

I'm sure this works fine for millions of other people, but I think I
shall avoid it in future and pay as I go - it will probably work out
cheaper and certainly easier! Thanks for the advice and info.

Cheers

David

On Aug 23, 11:34 am, Uncle Dave wrote:
I chose the
underground at Waterloo which was where I arrived, went to the barrier
where the guy informed me that it probably wouldn't work and that the
barrier would open so I'd get charged for a journey. He was right so
I've now been charged for a journey I never made because I used the
bus.

We warned you that would happen. There's really not much reason for
anyone to buy credit online if you're starting your journey at a tube
station - just use your credit/debit card in a tube ticket machine.

U

--
http://londonconnections.blogspot.com/
A blog about transport projects in London

In message . com, Uncle
Dave writes
On Aug 21, 10:28 am, Uncle Dave wrote:

Ah, right, that's what I was wondering. OK, rather than top up on-
line I'll buy some credit at the ticket machine - I'm not expecting to
travel often enough to warrant auto top up.

In the event, I topped up online, but the options where you can
validate your top-up are limited and don't include buses. I chose the
underground at Waterloo which was where I arrived, went to the barrier
where the guy informed me that it probably wouldn't work and that the
barrier would open so I'd get charged for a journey. He was right so
I've now been charged for a journey I never made because I used the
bus.
I'm not quite sure what you did here. By saying "charged for a journey
I never made", do you mean you opened the barrier but didn't enter the
system and travel? If so, then nothing went wrong or "didn't work".
You can only collect on-line top ups when you make a Tube journey.
That might have been what the chap on the barrier meant but he should
really have explained it to you more fully (depending on what you said
to him).

In your circumstances, it would have been better not to top up online
but to do it at a machine at Waterloo, not enter the Tube system and
then go straight on to the bus.

I'm sure this works fine for millions of other people, but I think I
shall avoid it in future and pay as I go - it will probably work out
cheaper
No, National Rail journeys notwithstanding, Oyster should always be
cheaper if you do it properly.

and certainly easier!
Perhaps because the concept, the "way" in which Oyster works, it does
confuse people and you're not alone. If I gave any advice to anyone,
I'd suggest they load up a card at a machine, a ticket office or a
newsagent and take it from there.
--
Ian Jelf, MITG
Birmingham, UK

Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

On Aug 23, 12:34 pm, Ian Jelf wrote:

Perhaps because the concept, the "way" in which Oyster works, it does
confuse people and you're not alone. If I gave any advice to anyone,
I'd suggest they load up a card at a machine, a ticket office or a
newsagent and take it from there.

I rang them and they're refunding the cost of the "ghost" journey so
at least I won't lose anything. As I usually only use the card when
coming back to the country and travelling via London, topping up on-
line is preferable as it's always possible that the machine won't be
working and the ticket office closed. Knowing my luck "it's always
possible that" is redundant in that statement ;-)

I'm glad it's not just me that they've confused - from the casual user
viewpoint the inconsistency of use between means of transport is
inexcusable. Maybe it's down to the system infrastructure, though why
validation should only be possible at certain points is beyond me. My
guess is it's probably a security issue - the functionality of the
devices appears to be the same.

The fact that you can't validate your top-up without making a journey
is poor design - either validation is a discrete function or it
isn't.

Cheers

David

On Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:20:24 -0700, Uncle Dave wrote:

I rang them and they're refunding the cost of the "ghost" journey so
at least I won't lose anything. As I usually only use the card when
coming back to the country and travelling via London, topping up on-
line is preferable as it's always possible that the machine won't be
working and the ticket office closed.

If the machine isn't working and the office is closed, how would you
be able to collect your online top-up without starting a Tube journey?

The fact that you can't validate your top-up without making a journey
is poor design - either validation is a discrete function or it
isn't.

I don't think it's poor design. Topping up online and then collecting
at a Tube station is completely pointless unless you're also making a
Tube journey. (The whole advantage of online top-up is you avoid
having to queue at the ticket machine/office when you reach the
station, which is lost if you've got to do so anyway to collect the
top-up.)

On Aug 23, 10:51 pm, asdf wrote:

I don't think it's poor design. Topping up online and then collecting
at a Tube station is completely pointless unless you're also making a
Tube journey. (The whole advantage of online top-up is you avoid
having to queue at the ticket machine/office when you reach the
station, which is lost if you've got to do so anyway to collect the
top-up.)

That's my point!

David

On Aug 23, 10:51 pm, asdf wrote:
The fact that you can't validate your top-up without making a journey
is poor design - either validation is a discrete function or it
isn't.

I don't think it's poor design. Topping up online and then collecting
at a Tube station is completely pointless unless you're also making a
Tube journey. (The whole advantage of online top-up is you avoid
having to queue at the ticket machine/office when you reach the
station, which is lost if you've got to do so anyway to collect the
top-up.)

The poor design element is that you can't validate on a bus, thereby
making validation actually an issue instead of the non-issue it ought
to be (yes, I know the excuses for this; however, it'd be trivially
easy to make bus-based readers connect to the base by GPRS every five
minutes to exchange relevant data with the central system).

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