[original thread on uk.railway]
[x-posted to uk.transport.london]

On Jun 8, 7:29*pm, wrote:

On Jun 8, 6:49*pm, "Paul Scott"
wrote:

"Peter Masson" wrote:

Boris Johnson has announced that Oyster PAYG will be accepted on National
Rail throughout Greater London during the tube strike if it goes ahead.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/medi...tre/11971.aspx
How will that work? Have all National rail stations now got working Oyster
readers?Is the back office geared up to deduct the correct fare for all
National Rail journeys? If the answer to both questions is yes, why can't
Oyster PAYG on National Rail start immediately?

I just noticed SWT's take on this earlier:

http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/SWT...ndergroundstri....

"... The services are Feltham to Clapham Junction and Waterloo via Kew
Bridge or via Richmond; and Wimbledon to Clapham Junction and Waterloo. This
includes PAYG and paper tickets.
We shall not be accepting PAYG or paper London Underground tickets at any
other SWT station."

As you say it will be interesting if they actually switch on their PAYG
functionality just for a couple of days, but how else could it work?

As the TfL link just says show your card, I assume that TfL will be
paying the TOCs to accept them, without fares necessarily being
deducted. Of course, SWT

from the link above

For the sake of clarity, that's the TfL news release - which I'll
repeat he
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/medi...tre/11971.aspx


'National Rail

Oyster pay as you go will be accepted on all National Rail journeys
within Greater London on Wednesday and Thursday, just show your Oyster
card at station gate lines.'

There does seem to be a bit of a disagreement between the SWT site
(basically only valid on routes near LU lines) and the TfL site (valid
everywhere), but I can see no info on the Southern, South Eastern or
FCC sites (I gave up checking after these!!), where there are also LU
lines nearby.


Ah, what delightful confusion. It seems that either SWT or TfL don't
understand what they've agreed upon. I assume that this contingency
plan for Oyster PAYG to be accepted on NR was negotiated some time
ago, presumably between TfL and ATOC acting on behalf of all the
London TOCs - it is after all the 'nuclear option', as it were. If so,
then perhaps there's been some misunderstanding of it after it was
taken off the shelf and dusted off - but if so, is that
misunderstanding SWT's or TfL's part (I'd wager on the former! But
maybe not, and Boris/TfL are chancing/pushing it?).

Alternatively, perhaps the agreement was struck more recently, what
with the threat of a looming strike. (Could it even have been struck
by a Boris administration, aware of the potential of forthcoming
trouble?) If it's been struck more recently, then it's shabby that
they can't sing from teh same hymn sheet.

Regardless, this is a stupid situation - if TfL are proclaiming that,
then SWT can't penalise people for following that advice. If they do,
then there'll be a lot of penalty fares appeals!

FWIW, I can certainly see the logic in restricting the acceptance of
Oyster card holders to only some routes - the Tube network doesn't go
anywhere near Surbiton after all.