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Post by sid on Sept 7, 2015 10:03:14 GMT
Excellent news, and long overdue. You would be amazed how fond Southeastern's ticket inspectors are of travelling between Dartford and Slade Green/Barnehurst/Crayford. Bet it won't be as popular with them from tomorrow I feel slightly cheeky now, as I regularly take Woolwich or Sidcup trains to Dartford,then change onto a Bexleyheath train to Welling, all on my Oyster card!! I can't recall seeing ticket inspectors on the Bexleyheath line (or the other two lines for that matter) for a long while now, maybe I'm just lucky... I'm hoping the next stations go follow suit are Swanley, Potters Bar, StainesUT, Slough(?), Dorking, Leatherhead, Redhill... all stations within the M25 or served by TFL buses. I still find it bonkers that staions as far out as Cheshunt/Broxbourne and Grays all accept Oyster cards. Would I be right in assuming that all stations to Reading/Maidenhead, as a result of Crossrail, will also accept Oyster cards? I've done that a few times as well going from Sidcup to Slade Green via Dartford on oyster for example and never seen ticket inspectors I suppose the questions is where do you draw the line? People will just want the boundary extended further and further!
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Post by sid on Sept 7, 2015 10:04:51 GMT
Still no PAYG extensions for SWT services Staines and Shepperton should be extended into the PAYG area. Blame SWT (Stagecoach) who hate Oyster and delayed the entire roll out of Oyster to NR stations in the zones because they argued they'd lose out financially. The reality is that the TOCS are tens of millions of pounds better off because so many people use Oyster PAYG on their services. Shashi Verma of TfL explained this point to the London Assembly Transport Committee earlier this year. Doubly ironic given TfL paid all the conversion and validator installation costs too! All upside for the TOCs. One thing to do is to watch who gets shortlisted for the new SWT franchise due in 2017. Most bidders have a public website for their bid and ask the public for ideas - you have a perfect opportunity to suggest some small Oyster PAYG extensions or to extend the zones to cover those places as happened with Southern. TfL and the Mayor may well come along and "increment" the SWT franchise with things like PAYG extensions. Don't all TOC's hate Oyster? A SET official told me "it's just a flaming nuisance as far as we're concerned"!!
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Post by snoggle on Sept 7, 2015 10:28:43 GMT
Blame SWT (Stagecoach) who hate Oyster and delayed the entire roll out of Oyster to NR stations in the zones because they argued they'd lose out financially. The reality is that the TOCS are tens of millions of pounds better off because so many people use Oyster PAYG on their services. Shashi Verma of TfL explained this point to the London Assembly Transport Committee earlier this year. Doubly ironic given TfL paid all the conversion and validator installation costs too! All upside for the TOCs. One thing to do is to watch who gets shortlisted for the new SWT franchise due in 2017. Most bidders have a public website for their bid and ask the public for ideas - you have a perfect opportunity to suggest some small Oyster PAYG extensions or to extend the zones to cover those places as happened with Southern. TfL and the Mayor may well come along and "increment" the SWT franchise with things like PAYG extensions. Don't all TOC's hate Oyster? A SET official told me "it's just a flaming nuisance as far as we're concerned"!! Don't think so. Some were early adopters and haven't stood in the way of the scheme as SWT did. I suspect they don't like the fact that "it is not invented here" and is effectively controlled by TfL and the Mayor and not the TOCs themselves. It's also popular which will be a further annoyance because it means fewer cash sales direct in the TOCs' tills whereas they will have to wait for a settlement via industry processes for Oyster payments. If they don't like it then they should invent something themselves that's better. Oh hang on - they've been trying to do that for over 15 years and have barely got it into service whereas TfL have already moved on to Contactless and that's also pretty popular. Another reason to hate what TfL does. Nothing like success to put people's noses out of joint.
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Post by snowman on Sept 7, 2015 14:29:01 GMT
A quick way to see the zone anomalies is to look at this map (there is a link to a high resolution version) it was drawn couple of years ago and also shows congestion charge (red) and cycle hire (blue) londonist.com/2014/01/mapped-londons-oyster-zone-boundariesJust try drawing a series of concentric circles from the zero milepost (by Charing cross station forecourt) and you will see how some areas are in completely wrong zone.
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