In message , David
Cantrell writes

Please could you let me know where the nearest *competent* Oyster shop
is to Thornton Heath station whose equipment actually works? Last time
I asked TfL they couldn't tell me. The nearest shop, according to them,
was about ten minutes walk away, and their machine was broken.

No idea which ones are competent, but there are ten Oyster Ticket Stops
within less than 10 minutes walk:

http://ticketstoplocator.tfl.gov.uk/...Code=CR7%208RX
--
Paul Terry

In message
, MIG
writes

Forest Gate Station

On 24 Nov, 19:58, Paul Terry wrote:

Agreed - you'd have to go to the Oyster shop just opposite the station.

Just off the top of my head ... Where is the Oyster shop just over
the road from

St Johns
Lewisham

No idea. I was writing about Forest Gate Station.
--
Paul Terry

On 25 Nov, 11:27, John B wrote:
On Nov 25, 11:23*am, MIG wrote:





On 25 Nov, 11:12, "Paul Scott" wrote:

Paul Terry wrote:
In message , Paul Corfield
writes

I doubt that many NR stations will end up selling the full range of
Oyster services. *We're £40m down in terms of this upgrade and there
is little expansion of Oyster capable retailing as a result. It's
only at joint stations plus whatever LOROL has taken over from
former TOCs. *Why do you imagine there has been such a massive
expansion and re-equipment of the Oyster Ticket Stop network?

I wonder why the money spent on this expansion was not used to provide
Oyster retail facilities at NR stations. Surely that would have been
more useful to passengers, given the likely shift from paper tickets
to Oyster on NR throughout London?

The media briefing 'FAQs' suggests that Oyster PAYG top ups at least will be
available at 'most NR stations', presumably via modifications to the TVMs.

There are already some TOC stations where Oyster Travelcards are retailed,
maybe these will be increased as well?

Paul S

I found it rather odd that New Cross Gate, which used to have Oyster
facilities, no longer has them.

Odd why? PAYG isn't valid there while the ELL's shut, so providing top-
ups etc would only lead to confusion.

It leads to confusion for people who used to top up there and now
can't.

Seems to coincide with the takeover of the route by LO, which is what
I found odd about it, given that LO needs Oyster in place and they've
taken away a facility that was already there.

On 25 Nov, 12:42, Paul Terry wrote:
In message
, MIG
writes

Forest Gate Station

On 24 Nov, 19:58, Paul Terry wrote:
Agreed - you'd have to go to the Oyster shop just opposite the station..
Just off the top of my head ... *Where is the Oyster shop just over
the road from

St Johns
Lewisham

No idea. I was writing about Forest Gate Station.


Your reply appeared to be to Tim's general point. If I can think of
two, there must be many others which don't have an Oyster shop near
them.

In fact, shops right near stations often won't sell Oyster stuff,
because they'd become a substitute ticket office and the Oyster
commission wouldn't make up for their lost sales in newspapers and
crisps when their real customers are blocked by the queue.

In article
,
(MIG) wrote:

Just off the top of my head ... Where is the Oyster shop just over
the road from

and, while we're asking, what about Hornsey?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In article ,
(Paul Scott) wrote:

Mr Thant wrote:
On 24 Nov, 20:17, Paul Corfield wrote:
How very, very odd. When I went to that page earlier today it had a
load of detail about the post 2 Jan 2010 situation on it. It included
paragraphs on OEP. Now when I look it is not there. I wonder if it
worked because I linked through at work during my lunch break??

No, I saw it too.

The text about OEPs here is almost identical to what was on TfL's site
this morning:

http://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk...iCmsPageId=509

There has been a presumption (judged across a number of threads,
blogs etc) that OEPs will not be available at NR stations, but in
that linked article it includes:

"Oyster Extension Permits can be set at any Tube or London
Overground station ticket office or touchscreen ticket machine;
Oyster Ticket Stops; selected National Rail ticket offices or
_self-service ticket machines displaying the Oyster card reader
logo._"

In the TfL/ATOC media briefing 'FAQs' (linked elsewhere) it reads
"Passengers will be also be able to add pay as you go credit at
most National Rail stations."

So maybe as we speak, they are tweaking the NR TVM software to
provide both PAYG top ups and OEPs from 2nd Jan? IIRC the LO TVMs
were retrofitteed with Oyster facilities in pretty short order when
they went over to TfL...

Maybe everyone should wait and see before assuming the worst...

I suppose an acid test would be the newest LOROL stations between New
Cross and West Croydon recently handed over from Southern.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

wrote:
In article ,
(Paul Scott) wrote:

So maybe as we speak, they are tweaking the NR TVM software to
provide both PAYG top ups and OEPs from 2nd Jan? IIRC the LO TVMs
were retrofitteed with Oyster facilities in pretty short order when
they went over to TfL...

Maybe everyone should wait and see before assuming the worst...

I suppose an acid test would be the newest LOROL stations between New
Cross and West Croydon recently handed over from Southern.

Not necessarily, because they are still using SN's existing equipment
AFAICS. Their LO stuff hasn't really got to be ready until next May or so...

I think the early handover was simply to avoid upheaval 6 months into the
new SN contract, not much evidence of any change on the ground yet, except
for blanking out SN logos.

Paul

In article ,
(Paul Scott) wrote:

wrote:
In article ,
(Paul Scott) wrote:

So maybe as we speak, they are tweaking the NR TVM software to
provide both PAYG top ups and OEPs from 2nd Jan? IIRC the LO TVMs
were retrofitteed with Oyster facilities in pretty short order when
they went over to TfL...

Maybe everyone should wait and see before assuming the worst...

I suppose an acid test would be the newest LOROL stations between New
Cross and West Croydon recently handed over from Southern.

Not necessarily, because they are still using SN's existing
equipment AFAICS. Their LO stuff hasn't really got to be ready
until next May or so...

I think the early handover was simply to avoid upheaval 6 months
into the new SN contract, not much evidence of any change on the
ground yet, except for blanking out SN logos.

They have 6 months then. Do keep us informed if you can. :-)

--
Colin Rosenstiel

"Tim Roll-Pickering" wrote in message
...
Paul Terry wrote:

It's not "unavailable" unless you can't cross the road to the Oyster
shop,

I've not seen that one well advertised as an Oyster stop - though
admittedly I tend to turn right straight out of the station - but also
what happens out of hours when the shop is closed?

and I've not seen any evidence in the 2010 fares tables of zone extension
tickets being "whacked up".

Well raising paper ticket prices to drive people onto Oyster has been the
standard strategy for years now so why shouldn't we expect it to be
extended here?


If the paper ticket prices inside the zones rise too much you may be better
off buying a fare from a station *outside* the zones. I had been using a
combination of NR tickets and PAYG until recently, when a special discount
offer from Southern now gives me a paper all-zones day travel card plus
travel from/to Brighton for £8.05. The Oyster card stays in my pocket.

DAS

On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 12:23:19PM +0000, Paul Terry wrote:
In message , David
Cantrell writes
And in any case, "I've got a travelcard and a big enough PAYG balance,
therefore I've already got a zone extension ticket and it should Just
Work because Oyster is meant to make things simple and convenient".
It doesn't seem to me to be harder than having to remember, at present,
that the PAYG element on an Oyster can only be used on a very limited
number of NR lines.

That's easily remembered as "PAYG only works on TfL services". The
exceptions to that rule are so vanishingly rare that they might as well
not exist for most people. OEPs will introduce complication everywhere.

Or that a Freedom card can only be used after a
certain time on NR

Enforced by ticket barriers on entry at many places, enforced by
ticket inspectors at others.

and only to certain stations...

Enforced by ticket barriers at the other end. The penalty that you get
for fare-dodging will tell you there and then not to do it again.
Having money mysteriously disappear off your Oyster card for no apparent
reason will just make it look like Oyster is unreliable.

or having to remember
any of the other ticketing restrictions encountered in modern life.

The whole point of Oyster is to make ticketing simpler, is it not?

--
David Cantrell | Hero of the Information Age

I'm in retox